Screw up his eyes

[Bassim]

I have tried to use "screw up his eyes" in my sentence. Would you please correct my mistakes?

John woke up and screwed up his eyes as he saw heavy rain beating against his window. "How am I going to pull through this day, stony broke?" he thought.

 

[GoesStation]

Pull through means to survive a medical crisis. Use get through.

If John has no money, he's stone broke.

 

[Bassim]

GoosStation,

Longman dictionary has "flat/stony broke" meaning completely broke.

 

[teechar]

I use "stone broke" too; it's more common nowadays.

Use "get through" or "make it through".

The ending is wrong; "broke" is an adjective, not an adverb. Try, e.g.,
I'm flat/stone broke; how am I going to make it through this day?

 

[GoesStation]

Longman dictionary has "flat/stony broke" meaning completely broke.

Only stone​ is used in American English.

 

[teechar]

The ngram shows them neck and neck. And that's for BrE.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/gra..._url=t1;,stone broke;,c0;.t1;,stony broke;,c0

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm not questioning Ngram's findings but I have never heard "stone broke" in BrE, only "stony broke". Maybe there are regional variations.

"Stone dead" and "stone cold" are very common.

 

[teechar]

Maybe there are regional variations.

I suspect so.

 

[Rover_KE]

When I read 'screwed up his eyes' I thought the sun was dazzling him.

Instead, consider grimaced.

 

[Tdol]

It's stony broke in the Midlands in my experience.

 

[Rover_KE]

... and in the North West.

 

[emsr2d2]

... and in the south-east.

 

[andrewg927]

Only 'stony broke' is common in BrE.

Interesting. I only knew stone broke.

 

[andrewg927]

I use "stone broke" too; it's more common nowadays.

Use "get through" or "make it through".

The ending is wrong; "broke" is an adjective, not an adverb. Try, e.g.,
I'm flat/stone broke; how am I going to make it through this day?

Hm, the ending sounds fine to me.

 

[teechar]

On second thought, I suppose it is possible with the original ending. The original just didn't sound right to me, and I think I looked for more mistakes than were actually there.

For example,
How am I going to get through this day; stone broke, hungry and homeless?

 

[vishalgupta]

I have tried to use "screw up his eyes" in my sentence. Would you please correct my mistakes?

John woke up and screwed up his eyes as he saw heavy rain beating against his window. "How am I going to pull through this day, stony broke?" he thought.

I don't find any error in your use of this phrase. Here it may mean - He scrunched up his eyes ( showing frustration ) while viewing the rain.