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turn up the heat on



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Idioms and Phrases

Also, put the heat or screws or squeeze on ; tighten the screws on . Pressure someone, as in The cops turned up the heat on drivers who show signs of drunkenness , or They said they'd tighten the screws on her if she didn't confess . All of these slangy terms allude to forms of physical coercion or torture. The first dates from about 1930, the variants using screws from the mid-1800s, and squeeze from the late 1700s.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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