twig

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English twig, twyg, from Old English twīg, from Proto-Germanic *twīgą (compare West Frisian twiich, Dutch twijg, German Zweig), from Proto-Indo-European *dwigʰa (compare Old Church Slavonic двигъ (dvigŭ, “branch”), Albanian degë (“branch”)), from *dwóh₁. More at two.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /twɪɡ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪɡ

Noun

twig (plural twigs)

1. A small thin branch of a tree or bush.

   They used twigs and leaves as a base to start the fire.

   • 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 1, in The Dust of Conflict^[1]:

     A beech wood with silver firs in it rolled down the face of the hill, and the maze of leafless twigs and dusky spires cut sharp against the soft blueness of the evening sky.

Translations

a small thin branch

• Arabic: غُصَّيْن‏‎ m (ḡuṣṣayn)
• Armenian: շիվ (hy) (šiv)
• Bashkir: ботаҡ (botaq), сыбыҡ (sïbïq)
• Belarusian: галіна́ f (haliná), галі́нка f (halínka)
• Bulgarian: кло́нка (bg) f (klónka), ве́йка (bg) f (véjka)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 枝 (zh) (zhī)

• Czech: větvička (cs) f
• Dutch: twijg (nl)
• Finnish: varpu (fi)
• French: brindille (fr) f
• Galician: biringallo m, fruncia f, garamuxo m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Zweig (de) m
• Hungarian: gally (hu)
• Icelandic: kvistur (is) m
• Italian: ramoscello (it) m, verga (it) f
• Japanese: 小枝 (こえだ, koeda), 枝 (ja) (えだ, eda)
• Korean: 나뭇가지 (ko) (namutgaji)
• Lithuanian: šakelė f, šaka (lt) f
• Low German: Twieg (nds) m
• Macedonian: гранче n (granče)

• Malay: ranting
• Maori: tākupu, kōetoeto (used in the plural), rārā, puaka
• Middle English: twygge
• Norman: brantchette f
• Norwegian: kvist m
• Persian: ترکه‏‎ (fa) (tarke), ازگ‏‎ (fa) (azg), برسم‏‎ (fa) (barsam)
• Polish: gałązka (pl) f
• Portuguese: raminho m
• Romanian: rămurea (ro) f, rămurică f, nuia (ro) f, vargă (ro) f, smicea (ro) f
• Russian: ве́тка (ru) f (vétka), ве́точка (ru) f (vétočka)
• Scottish Gaelic: bioran m, geug (gd) f, meanglan m, ògan m, òganach m, slat m, sprios m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: гранчица f, вејка f

  Roman: grančica (sh) f, vejka (sh) f

• Slovak: vetvička f
• Slovene: vejica (sl) f
• Spanish: ramita f, ramilla f, vara (es) f
• Swedish: kvist (sv) c
• Tagalog: siit, gangaw, sangay
• Telugu: రెమ్మ (te) (remma)
• Turkish: çöp (tr)
• Ukrainian: гі́лка f (hílka), гі́лочка f (híločka), галу́зка f (halúzka)

Derived terms

• off one's twig
• twig and berries

Verb

twig (third-person singular simple present twigs, present participle twigging, simple past and past participle twigged)

1. (transitive) To beat with twigs.

Etymology 2

From Irish and Scottish Gaelic tuig (“to understand”).

Verb

twig (third-person singular simple present twigs, present participle twigging, simple past and past participle twigged)

1. (colloquial, regional) To realise something; to catch on.

   • He hasn't twigged that we're planning a surprise party for him.

   • 2012 May 30, John E. McIntyre, “A future for copy editors”, in Baltimore Sun^[2]:

     Well, with fewer people doing two or three times the work, you may have already twigged to this.

2. To understand the meaning of (a person); to comprehend.

   Do you twig me?

3. To observe slyly; also, to perceive; to discover.
   • Foote

     Now twig him; now mind him.

   • Hawthorne

     as if he were looking right into your eyes and twigged something there which you had half a mind to conceal

Translations

to realise something

• French: entraver (fr), capter (fr), piger (fr)
• German: mitbekommen, mitkriegen, (slang) checken (de)
• Japanese: 気づく (ja) (kizuku)
• Lithuanian: suvokti (lt), susigaudyti, įsisąmoninti

• Portuguese: imaginar (pt)
• Russian: догада́ться (ru) (dogadátʹsja), смекну́ть (ru) (smeknútʹ), (slang) просе́чь (ru) (proséčʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: tuig
• Swedish: greppa (sv), fatta (sv)

Etymology 3

Compare tweak.

Verb

twig (third-person singular simple present twigs, present participle twigging, simple past and past participle twigged)

1. (obsolete, Scotland) To twitch; to pull; to tweak.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for twig in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)