Idiom of the Day:

“Screwed up”

This phrase is so commonplace

in the US that I didn’t honestly think about it being an idiom. If you “screwed up,” this means that you made a mistake or an error. If you made an a egregious error, we would say, “I screwed up big time” or “I really screwed up this time.” If someone calls you a “screw up,” they are saying in a somewhat insulting way that you always make mistakes.

“I screwed up making a cake by baking it for too long, and I ended up burning it.”