/twɪst/, [tw̥ɪst]
- countable, uncountableA twisting force.
- countable, uncountableAnything twisted, or the act of twisting.
“Peter was always proud afterwards when he remembered that, with the Bargee's furious fingers tightening on his ear, the Bargee's crimson countenance close to his own, the Bargee's hot breath on his ne”
“Not the least turn or twist in the fibres of any one animal which does not render them more proper for that particular animal's way of life than any other cast or texture.”
- countable, uncountableThe form given in twisting.
“Habakkuk brought him a ſmooth, ſtrong, tough Rope, made of many a ply of vvholeſome Scandinavian Hemp, compactly tvviſted together, vvith a Nooſe that ſlip'd as glib as a Bird-catcher's Gin. Jack ſhru”
- countable, uncountableThe degree of stress or strain when twisted.
- countable, uncountableA type of thread made from two filaments twisted together.
“the thrid
By griesly Lachesis was spun with paine,
That cruell Atropos eftsoones vndid,
With cursed knife cutting the twist in twaine […]”
“I was one morning walking arm in arm with him in St James's Park, his dress then being […] waistcoat and breeches of the same blue satin, trimmed with silver twist à la hussarde, and ermine edges.”
- countable, uncountableA sliver of lemon peel added to a cocktail, etc.
“Bunny sat on the only remaining stool at the leather-padded oval bar in the Iron Lounge. It was happy hour, two drinks for the price of one. She decided on a martini with a twist, and while the barten”
- countable, uncountableA sudden bend (or short series of bends) in a road, path, etc.
“But here a twist in the stream brought us out from the bushes”
“I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the f”
- countable, uncountableA distortion to the meaning of a passage or word.
- countable, uncountableAn unexpected turn in a story, tale, etc.
“I'm all agog at the new twist to the royal scandal.”
“Though set in Los Angeles, the film has a familiar, television look and feel - two handsome partners, cops, criminals, fast cars and a marginal romance. The twist in the buddy-car-chase formula is tha”
“Roy: Oh no, now I know there's a twist. I'm gonna spend the whole film guessing what it is. Damn you, Dominator!
Moss: Just try and forget that there's a twist.
Roy: Oh, how can you forget there's a t”
- countable, uncountableA modern dance popular in Western culture in the late 1950s and 1960s, based on rotating the hips repeatedly from side to side. See Twist (dance) on Wikipedia for more details.
“Come on, baby, let's do the twist
Take me by my little hand and go like this”
“Out from his coffin, Drac's voice did ring
Seems he was troubled by just one thing
Opened the lid and shook his fist
And said, "Whatever happened to my Transylvania twist?"
It's now the Mash
It's now ”
“Well, let's dance, well let's dance.
We'll do the twist, the stomp, the mashed potato too
Any old dance that you want to do
But let's dance.”
- countable, uncountableA rotation of the body when diving.
- countable, uncountableA sprain, especially to the ankle.
- countable, obsolete, uncountableA twig.
“No twiſt, no twig, no bough nor branch […]”
- countable, slang, uncountableA girl, a woman.
“James and Ruby danced over beside us. ‘Did you tell her?’ he asked, looking at me. I nodded.
‘Wait a minute,’ Gloria said, as they started to dance away. ‘What’s the big idea of talking behind my bac”
“(Dane, speaking about a woman character) "I'll see where the twist flops"”
- countable, uncountableA roll or baton of baked dough or pastry in a twisted shape.
- countable, uncountableA small roll of tobacco.
“We spent a lot of time up on the staging of the great furnaces, trying to pick up the tricks of the trade from the taciturn furnacemen who sat around placidly smoking, or chewing twist, and occasional”
“[…] this Katie Byrne was a great favourite with Art and Con, to whom she always brought a gift of tobacco twist, when she came on a visit, and Art and Con were great chewers of tobacco twist, and neve”
- countable, uncountableA material for gun barrels, consisting of iron and steel twisted and welded together.
- countable, uncountableThe spiral course of the rifling of a gun barrel or a cannon.
- countable, obsolete, slang, uncountableA beverage made of brandy and gin.
- countable, uncountableA strong individual tendency or bent; inclination.
“a twist toward fanaticism”
- archaic, countable, slang, uncountableAn appetite for food.
“Hope you’ve brought good appetites with you, gentlemen. You, Doolan, I know ave, for you’ve always ad a deuce of a twist.”
“He [the yearling bull] had a good handsome male head, and he had a capital twist. He had a spring in his rib, and was something over seven feet in girth. He was well covered, and had all the recommend”
- abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountableEllipsis of hair twist.
“The physician should evaluate for a history of tight ponytails, buns, chignons, braids, twists, weaves, cornrows, dreadlocks, sisterlocks, and hair wefts in addition to the usage of religious hair cov”
- To turn the ends of something, usually thread, rope etc., in opposite directions, often using force.
- To join together by twining one part around another.
“"Well, one day I went up in a balloon and the ropes got twisted, so that I couldn't come down again. It went way up above the clouds, so far that a current of air struck it and carried it many, many m”
- To contort; to writhe; to complicate; to crook spirally; to convolve.
“June 8, 1714, Alexander Pope, letter to Jonathan Swift
twisting it into a serpentine form.”
- To wreathe; to wind; to encircle; to unite by intertexture of parts.
“longing to twist bays with that ivy”
“There are pillars of smoke twisted about wreaths of flame.”
- reflexiveTo wind into; to insinuate.
“Avarice twists itself into all human concerns.”
- To turn a knob etc.
- To distort or change the truth or meaning of words when repeating.
“Say I could succeed at the Bar, and achieve a fortune by bullying witnesses and twisting evidence; is that a fame which would satisfy my longings, or a calling in which my life would be well spent?”
- To form a twist (in any of the above noun meanings).
- To injure (a body part) by bending it in the wrong direction.
“Then Romany went down, then we fell together, and the chaps separated us. I got another knock-down blow in, and was beginning to enjoy the novelty of it, when Romany staggered and limped.
‘I’ve done,’”
“Oh, you are a devil. You can twist the heart in a girl as easy as some could twist her arms to hurt her. Mrs Pearce warned me. Time and again she has wanted to leave you; and you always got round her ”
- intransitiveTo wind; to follow a bendy or wavy course; to have many bends.
“I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the f”
“My coming to New York had been a mistake; for whereas I had looked for poignant wonder and inspiration in the teeming labyrinths of ancient streets that twist endlessly from forgotten courts and squar”
- transitiveTo cause to rotate.
“The tide seized us and swept us along, and in the races where this happened there were sucking whirlpools, strong enough to twist us round.”
- intransitiveTo dance the twist (a type of dance characterised by twisting one's hips).
“Twist it in the alley
With long tall Sally
Twistin' with Lucy
Doin' the watusi.”
- transitiveTo coax.
“"On the three-thousand-dollar reward John Bain is offerin' for the return of his sister," said Ace. "Now listen--I know a certain big Chinee had her kidnapped outa her 'rickshaw out at the edge of the”
- In the game of blackjack (pontoon or twenty-one), to be dealt another card.
Formstwists(plural) · twists(present, singular, third-person) · twisting(participle, present) · twisted(participle, past) · twisted(past)