twinset

English

Etymology

From twin +‎ set.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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Noun

twinset (plural twinsets)

1. A combination of a cardigan and a jumper, usually knitted in wool or cashmere.
   • 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:

     She was dressed to receive, as her mother would have said, and she had been standing at the window in her blue twinset for an hour, waiting for the car, waiting for the doorbell, waiting for the soft turn of her husband's key in the latch.

   • 1993, John Banville, Ghosts:

     I need these people, the Sergeant, and Mr. Tighe the shopman in the village, even Miss Broaders, she of the pink twinsets and tight mouth, who presides over the post office.

   • 2009 October 29, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Mr Stink, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

     She had been out all day campaigning and looked stiffly immaculate as ever in a royal blue twinset — except for her nose, which was twitching uncontrollably in disgust.

   • 2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 110:

     Shand's father had missed the whole thing — getting fou in the pub, more than likely—but his mum had been there, in her best green twinset, her court shoes polished to a shine as high as Shand's.

2. (railways) A pair of cars or locomotives that are permanently coupled and treated as a single unit.
3. (underwater diving) A pair of cylinders containing air for the diver to breathe.
   • 2012, John Bantin, Amazing Diving Stories:

     Tim and Rob both went into the water each armed with a twinset of air and a sling-tank of 50 per cent oxygen for use in decompression.

   • 2016, Jonas Arvidsson, Diving Equipment: Choice, maintenance and function, page 107:

     However, despite its strength, some say that carrying large twinsets by the manifold should not be recommended.

Translations

combination of a cardigan and jumper

• Polish: bliźniak (pl) m

Anagrams

• Winsett, Wittens, entwist, twinest