Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TWINK'LE, or TWINK'LING, n.

1. A sparkling; a shining with intermitted light; as, the twinkling of the stars.
2. A motion of the eye. Dryden.
3. A moment; an instant; the time of a wink. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump – the dead shall be raised incorruptible. 1 Cor. xv.

TWINK'LE, v.i. [Sax. twinclian; most probably formed from wink, with the prefix eth, ed, or oth, like twit.]

1. To sparkle; to flash at intervals; to shine with a tremulous intermitted light, or with a broken quivering light. The fixed stars twinkle; the planets do not. These stars do not twinkle, when viewed through telescopes that have large apertures. Newton.
2. To open and shut the eye by turns; as, the twinkling owl. L'Estrange.
3. To play irregularly; as, her eyes will twinkle. Donne.

TWINK'LING, ppr.

Sparkling.

TWIN'-LIKE-NESS, n.

Near resemblance.

TWIN'LING, n. [from twin.]

A twin lamb. Tusser.

TWIN'NED, a. [from twin.]

Produced at one birth, like twins; united. Milton.

TWIN'NER, n. [from twin.]

A breeder of twins. Tusser.

TWIN'TER, n. [two and winter.]

A beast two winters old. [Local.] Grose.

TWIRE, v.i.

To take short flights; to flutter; to quiver; to twitter. [Not in use.] Chaucer. Beaum.

TWIRL, n.

1. A rapid circular motion; quick rotation.
2. Twist; convolution. Woodward.

TWIRL, v.i.

To revolve with velocity; to be whirled round.

TWIRL, v.t. [twurl; D. dwarlen; G. querlen; formed on whirl. The German coincides with our vulgar quirl.]

To move or turn round with rapidity; to whirl round. See ruddy maids, / Some taught with dextrous hand to twirl the wheel. Dodsley.

TWIRL'ED, pp.

Whirled round.

TWIRL'ING, ppr.

Turning with velocity; whirling.

TWIST, n.

1. A cord, thread or any thing flexible, formed by winding strands or separate things round each other.
2. A cord; a string; a single cord.
3. A contortion; a writhe. Addison.
4. A little roll of tobacco.
5. Manner of twisting. Arbuthnot.
6. A twig. [Not in use.]

TWIST, v.i.

To be contorted or united by winding round each other. Some strands will twist more easily than others.

TWIST, v.t. [Sax. getwistan; D. twisten, to dispute, Sw. tvista; Dan. tvister, to dispute, to litigate; G. zwist, a dispute. In all the dialects except ours, this word is used figuratively, but it is remarkably expressive and well applied.]

1. To unite by winding one thread, strand or other flexible substance round another; to form by convolution, or winding separate things round each other; as, to twist yarn thread. So we say, to double and twist.
2. To form into a thread from many fine filaments; as, to twist wool or cotton.
3. To contort; to writhe; as, to twist a thing into a serpentine form. Pope.
4. To wreathe; to wind; to encircle. Pillars of smoke twisted about with wreaths of flame. Burnet.
5. To form; to weave; as, to twist a story. Shak.
6. To unite by intertexture of parts; as, to twist bays with ivy. Waller.
7. To unite; to enter by winding; to insinuate; as, avarice twists itself into all human concerns.
8. To pervert; as, to twist a passage in an author.
9. To turn from a straight line.

TWISTED, pp.

Formed by winding threads or strands round each other.

TWIST'ER, n.

1. One that twists.
2. The instrument of twisting. Wallis.

TWISTING, ppr.

Winding different strands or threads round each other; forming into a thread by twisting.

TWIT, v.t. [Sax. othwitan, edwitan, ætwitan, to reproach, to upbraid; a compound of ad, æth, or oth, and witan. The latter verb signifies to know, Eng. to wit, and also to impute, to ascribe, to prescribe or appoint, also to reproach; and with ge, a different prefix, gewitan, to depart. The original verb then signifies to set, send or throw. We have in this word decisive evidence that the first letter t, is a prefix, the remains of æth or oth, a word that probably coincides with the L. ad, to; and hence we may fairly infer that other words in which t precedes w, are also compound. That some of them are so, appears evident from other circumstances.]

To reproach; to upbraid; as for some previous act. He twitted his friend of falsehood. With this these scoffers twitted the Christians. Tillotson. Æsop minds men of their errors, without twitting them for what is amiss. L'Estrange.

TWITCH, n.

1. A pull with a jerk; a short, sudden, quick pull; as, a twitch by the sleeve.
2. A short spastic contraction of the fibers or muscles; as, a twitch in the side; convulsive twitches. Sharp.

TWITCH, v.t. [Sat. twiccian. See Twang.]

To pull with a sudden jerk; to pluck with a short, quick motion; to snatch; as, to twitch one by the sleeve; to twitch a thing out of another's hand; to twitch off clusters of grapes.

TWITCH'ED, pp.

Pulled with a jerk.

TWITCH'ER, n.

One that twitches.