How to Use screwball in a Sentence

screwball

1 of 2 noun
  • She really did that? What a screwball.
  • Aronson has the look of a guy who can do a good screwball turn.
    — New York Times, 11 June 2019
  • Wilder made that formula his own in his great string of black comedies and screwball tragedies.
    — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 8 Aug. 2022
  • Brewer had a vicious screwball and ended up striking out the side to earn the win.
    — Houston Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, 19 Sep. 2022
  • Their exchanges have real swing to them, a screwball quality with a punk twist.
    — Jennifer Senior, The Atlantic, 9 Feb. 2022
  • The screwball has fallen out of favor with most modern-day pitchers.
    — Washington Post, 2 June 2021
  • This is pretty close to a classic screwball-romance equation, of course.
    — John Defore, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Mar. 2022
  • Seehorn and Odenkirk had great chemistry, less romcom than screwball.
    — Darren Franich, EW.com, 16 Aug. 2022
  • His best pitch was a screwball, which breaks in the opposite direction from that of a curveball.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 4 June 2021
  • Guests are constantly looking around them, and often above them, to pick up on the screwball hijinks.
    — Todd Martens Game Critic, Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2021
  • As in a classic screwball comedy, the contrivances were part of the pleasure.
    — Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 19 June 2023
  • Robert Castillo was dispatched to teach Valenzuela the screwball.
    — Los Angeles Times, 15 Sep. 2021
  • Michael Cohen is, famously, a lowlife and screwball who’s made his living as an enforcer, liar and thug.
    — Peggy Noonan, WSJ, 28 Feb. 2019
  • This could be the political screwball true story that HBO hasn't had in quite a while.
    — Evan Romano, Men's Health, 28 Jan. 2022
  • He was known for throwing the screwball, an elusive pitch that breaks in the opposite direction of a slider or curveball.
    — Beth Harris, ajc, 2 June 2021
  • The trailer begins by making the series look like a space-noir, and then a screwball adventure, and then something beyond genre.
    — Rebecca Alter, Vulture, 27 Oct. 2021
  • Her repertoire includes a screwball, curveball and rise in addition to a fastball that tops out in the mid-to-high 60s.
    — Rick Armstrong, Chicago Tribune, 18 June 2026
  • The small-town Mexican kid with the funny delivery and vicious screwball overcame the odds again.
    — Los Angeles Times, 4 Feb. 2023
  • Though elements of these movies live on, classic screwball comedies fizzled out by the mid-1940s.
    — Leah Asmelash, CNN, 29 Aug. 2021
  • These scenes belong in some 1940s screwball romance, with Cary Grant as the clueless male.
    — Celia Storey, Arkansas Online, 29 May 2023
  • Why does screwball comedy paired with smart writing feel like such a rarity in TV comedies at the moment?
    — Nina Metz, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Sep. 2023
  • All of them get the chance to show their moxie via Sorkin’s patented rat-a-tat, screwball dialogue, and several of them get a righteous speech or two.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 10 Dec. 2021
  • More than anything, though, this wholesome-romance moment reminds me of the vogue for screwball comedies in the 1930s.
    — Time, 11 Aug. 2023
  • With her tousled blond hair, twinkly blue eyes, and megawatt smile, Meg Ryan has forged an onscreen persona as the screwball leading lady whose warmth can melt an iceberg.
    — ELLE Decor, 30 Sep. 2022
  • Guillen swung at a screwball tossed by Ramirez and hit a towering home run into over the left field fence to tie the game 1-1 and send the game into extra innings.
    — Ethan Hanson, Daily News, 4 June 2026
  • In a game against Joliet Catholic on May 7 last season, Kaiser stood in the batter's box as a screwball approached home plate.
    — Rich Mayor, chicagotribune.com, 9 May 2017
  • Kate and Hal make a great pair, in that the actors have chemistry while their characters argue and compete, drift and makeup, and their rapport brings a touch of screwball to the show.
    — Matthew Gilbert, BostonGlobe.com, 2 May 2023
  • The show proceeds as a deliberate pastiche, dense with references to movies ranging from thirties screwballs to the work of David Lynch.
    — Troy Patterson, The New Yorker, 24 Sep. 2019
  • Kwan and Scheinert aren’t afraid to milk her for screwball laughs, poking fun at her anxiety, her grumpiness and her creative bungling of the English language.
    — Justin Changfilm Critic, Los Angeles Times, 4 May 2022
  • Webb added a cutter to go along with his four-seam fastball, the sinker that Giants pitcher Andrew Suarez taught him, and his now-screwball-esque changeup.
    — Susan Slusser, San Francisco Chronicle, 22 Mar. 2021

screwball

2 of 2 adjective
  • Despite its screwball plot, this book will have you in a puddle of tears!
    — Literary Hub, 13 Feb. 2026
  • The show mostly relies on an on-the-nose screwball bigotry.
    — Tyler Austin Harper, The Atlantic, 26 Nov. 2025
  • That’s priceless in a screwball murder movie in which everyone’s soul is for sale.
    — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 18 Feb. 2026
  • The screwball shifts in tone somehow cohere into a biting parable of haves and have-nots.
    — The Economist, 15 Feb. 2020
  • But mainly the kids banter in pig Latin or in a screwball repartee fashioned from overheard adult speech.
    — Dan Chiasson, New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2025
  • Even that was more of a high-brow dramedy than straightforward screwball comedy.
    — Joanna Robinson, HWD, 3 Dec. 2017
  • Cofta excels at sweet sexy screwball characters such as Carol.
    — Jim Higgins, jsonline.com, 27 Oct. 2025
  • What is Valentine’s Day without a fizzy screwball comedy?
    — New York Times, 9 Feb. 2026
  • Yes, this is a script that figured a big-budget gangster-monster epic could also manage to fit a screwball buddy comedy.
    — David Sims, The Atlantic, 6 Mar. 2026
  • Cutting between this sequence and Millie and Obie’s screwball meet-cute over handcuffs is jarring at best.
    — Katie Walsh, kansascity, 26 Apr. 2018
  • Here's hoping Hart brings his trademark style of screwball humor but pairs it with some serious talk about changing the industry.
    — Katherine J. Igoe, Marie Claire, 5 Dec. 2018
  • His career spanned documentaries, screwball comedies and tales of social justice.
    — Free Press News Services, Detroit Free Press, 26 Apr. 2017
  • The movie is less a screwball comedy than a screwball contraption—a madcap farce that the screenwriters have reduced to a math problem.
    — Justin Chang, New Yorker, 22 Aug. 2025
  • Putting Mel Brooks in front of a camera guarantees some version of his signature screwball brilliance.
    — Bryan Alexander, USA Today, 22 Jan. 2026
  • Besides singing in one-person cabaret shows, Cooper has a particular gift for screwball comedy.
    — David Patrick Stearns, Philly.com, 20 July 2017
  • Some critics have applauded the movie’s screwball comedy and overly salacious scenes, but others weren’t impressed.
    — Sara Aridi, New York Times, 27 Mar. 2018
  • At first glance, Renee might suggest one of Schumer's regulation girls gone wild, a screwball screw-up who blots out her disappointments with men and booze.
    — Justin Chang, latimes.com, 19 Apr. 2018
  • This is about family life for Malcolm, who spent his childhood caught in the middle of his family’s side-splitting, screwball dysfunction.
    — Stuart Miller, Oc Register, 6 Apr. 2026
  • Jay decides to take all of them with him on a European trip in pursuit of his daughter, who’s headed to a jazz festival, as the film turns into a screwball set piece on a train.
    — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 29 Sep. 2025
  • Starring Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell, this screwball comedy is based off the short story of the same name.
    — Lilah Ramzi, Vogue, 27 Nov. 2021
  • Amazon keeps releasing screwball comedies like Deep Cover and Heads Of State.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 8 Aug. 2025
  • Amazon keeps releasing screwball comedies like Deep Cover and Heads Of State.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 9 Aug. 2025
  • Just think of the gridiron characters who've hit the big screen over the years, giving us awesome cinematic moments in everything from screwball comedies to rousing biopics.
    — Brian Truitt, USA Today, 19 Sep. 2025
  • Viewing the Olympics through the prism of style can be a screwball proposition, since the pinnacle of sport is also pretty reliably the height of sartorial kitsch.
    — Guy Trebay, New York Times, 21 Feb. 2018
  • Senior catcher Mariah Becerra pointed out that Akins also has a screwball and fastball.
    — Rick Armstrong, Chicago Tribune, 8 Apr. 2026
  • Stewart and Balinska have an infectious chemistry, while Scott demonstrates her skill for screwball comedy.
    — Tribune News Service, cleveland, 12 Nov. 2019
  • Cecile Monteyne draws on the screwball comedies of the past to bring out the laughs as Julia Budder, the party's hostess and dilettante producer of the new show.
    — NOLA.com, 12 June 2017
  • Jane, her abuela Alba, and her mother, Xiomara, relax by watching telenovelas, just as the Gilmore girls once watched screwball comedies.
    — Steven Strogatz, The New Yorker, 6 Mar. 2018
  • The best comic material in Last Christmas is of the sad screwball variety, as Kate bumbles through her work, home, and romantic life.
    — David Sims, The Atlantic, 6 Nov. 2019
  • The alternately suspenseful and silly scene nicely sets up the tone for this new season, which is infused with references to classic Westerns as much as screwball comedies.
    — David Canfield, HollywoodReporter, 1 June 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'screwball.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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