the first turn of the screw pays all debts

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /θə‿fɚɹst‿tɚn‿ʌv‿θə‿skɹu‿peɪ̯z‿ɑl‿dɛts/

Proverb

the first turn of the screw pays all debts

1. (nautical) One's problems on shore may be forgotten at the first turn of one's ship's propeller.
   • 1943, Geoffrey Willans, One Eye on the Clock, page 41:

     On the one hand was Martyn's dictum that the 'first turn of the screw pays all debts';

   • 1955, William Gaddis, The Recogntions, page 9:

     —The first turn of the screw pays all debts, he had muttered (crossing himself) in the stern of the Purdue Victory, where the deck shuddered underfoot as the blades of the single screw churned Boston's water beneath him;

   • 1991, T.R. Frame, J.V.P Goldrick, P.D. Jones, Reflections on the RAN, page 16:

     The first turn of the screw pays all debts, they say, except when there is a warship about.