twist

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[edit] English

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[edit] Etymology

This definition is lacking an etymology or has an incomplete etymology. You can help Wiktionary by giving it a proper etymology.

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Noun

twist (plural twists)

  1. A twisting force
  2. Anything twisted, or the act of twisting
    • 1906, Edith Nesbit, The Railway Children Chapter 8
      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 neck, he had the courage to speak the truth.
      "I wasn't catching fish," said Peter.
      "That's not your fault, I'll be bound," said the man, giving Peter's ear a twist--not a hard one--but still a twist.
  3. the degree of stress or strain when twisted.
  4. A type of thread made from two filaments twisted together.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.ii:
      the thrid / By griesly Lachesis was spun with paine, / That cruell Atropos eftsoones vndid, / With cursed knife cutting the twist in twaine [...].
  5. A sliver of lemon peel added to a cocktail, etc.
    • 2005, Theodore J. Albasini, The Progeny
      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 bartender was preparing her drink, she scanned the faces looking at the bar.
  6. A sudden bend (or short series of bends) in a road, path, etc.
    • 1899, Edith Nesbit, The Wouldbegoods
      But here a twist in the stream brought us out from the bushes
  7. A distortion to the meaning of a word or passage.
  8. An unexpected turn in a story, tale, etc.
    • 1987 October 23, Caryn James, “Movie Review: No Man's Land (1987)”:
      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 that here the good guys tend to blur into the bad.
  9. A type of dance characterised by rotating one’s hips. See Wikipedia:Twist (dance)
    • 1997 April 22, Jennifer Dunning, “Surviving It All, Dismissals, Tours and Balanchine”:
      She taught him to do the twist, having learned it herself from an Alvin Ailey dancer at Jacob's Pillow.
  10. A rotation of the body when diving.
  11. A sprain, especially to the ankle.
  12. (obsolete) twig

[edit] Descendants

[edit] Translations

twisting force
anything twisted, or the act of twisting; the degree of stress or strain when twisted
type of thread
sliver of lemon peel
sudden bend (or short series of bends) in a road, path, etc
distortion to the meaning of a word or passage
unexpected turn in a story, tale, etc
type of dance
rotation of the body when diving
sprain, especially to the ankle
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

[edit] Verb

twist (third-person singular simple present twists, present participle twisting, simple past and past participle twisted)

  1. To turn the ends of something, usually thread, rope etc., in opposite directions, often using force.
  2. (transitive) This word needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
    • 1913, George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion Act V
      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 at the last minute. And you don't care a bit for her. And you don't care a bit for me.
  3. To join together by twining one part around another.
    • 1900, L. Frank Baum , The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Chapter 15
      "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 miles away. For a day and a night I traveled through the air, and on the morning of the second day I awoke and found the balloon floating over a strange and beautiful country."
  4. To turn a knob etc.
  5. To distort or change the truth or meaning of words when repeating.
    • Exodus 23:8
      And you will not take a bribe, because a bribe will blind the alert, and will twist the words of the righteous.
  6. To form a twist (in any of the above noun meanings).
  7. To injure (a body part) by bending it in the wrong direction.
    • 1901, Henry Lawson, Joe Wilson's Courtship
      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,’ he said. ‘I’ve twisted my ankle.’ He’d caught his heel against a tuft of grass.
  8. (intransitive, of a path) To wind; to follow a bendy or wavy course; to have many bends.
    • 1926, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, He
      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 squares and waterfronts to courts and squares and waterfronts equally forgotten, and in the Cyclopean modern towers and pinnacles that rise blackly Babylonian under waning moons, I had found instead only a sense of horror and oppression which threatened to master, paralyze, and annihilate me.
  9. (transitive) To cause to rotate
    • 1911, John Masefield, Jim Davis Chapter 8
      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.
  10. (intransitive) To dance the twist (a type of dance characterised by twisting one's hips)
  11. (transitive) to coax
    • 1932, Robert E. Howard, Dark Shanghai
      "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 city one evenin'. He's been keepin' her prisoner in his house, waitin' a chance to send her up-country to some bandit friends of his'n; then they'll be in position to twist a big ransome outa John Bain, see?..."
  12. (card games) in the game of blackjack (pontoon or twenty-one), to be dealt another card.

[edit] Antonyms

(in blackjack, be dealt another card):: stick; stay

[edit] Translations

to turn the ends in opposite directions
to join together by twining
to turn a knob etc
to distort or change the truth or meaning
to form a twist (in any of the above meanings)
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

[edit] Derived terms

terms derived from the noun and verb "twist"

[edit] Anagrams

[edit] Dutch

[edit] Noun

twist m. (??? please provide the plural!, ??? please provide the diminutive!)

  1. strife, discord
  2. dispute

[edit] Derived terms

[edit] Anagrams

[edit] Finnish

[edit] Noun

twist

  1. twist (dance)

[edit] Declension

Declension of twist (type risti)
singular plural
nominative twist twistit
genitive twistin twistien
partitive twistiä twistejä
accusative twist
twistin		 twistit
inessive twistissä twisteissä
elative twististä twisteistä
illative twistiin twisteihin
adessive twistillä twisteillä
ablative twistiltä twisteiltä
allative twistille twisteille
essive twistinä twisteinä
translative twistiksi twisteiksi
instructive – twistein
abessive twistittä twisteittä
comitative – twisteineen

[edit] Derived terms

[edit] French

[edit] Etymology

From English

[edit] Noun

twist m. (plural twists)

  1. twist (dance)

[edit] Derived terms

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