twitch
See also: Twitch
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English twicchen, from Old English *twiċċan, from Proto-Germanic *twikkijaną (“to nail, pin, fasten, clasp, pinch”). Cognate with English tweak, Low German twikken, German Low German twicken (“to pinch, pinch off”), zweckōn and gizwickan (> German zwicken (“to pinch”)).
Pronunciation
Noun
twitch (countable and uncountable, plural twitches)
- A brief, small (sometimes involuntary) movement out of place and then back again; a spasm.
- I saw a little twitch in the man's face, and knew he was lying.
- (informal) Action of spotting or seeking out a bird, especially a rare one.
- (farriery) A stick with a hole in one end through which passes a loop, which can be drawn tightly over the upper lip or an ear of a horse and twisted to keep the animal quiet during minor surgery.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of J. H. Walsh to this entry?)
- (physiology) A brief, contractile response of a skeletal muscle elicited by a single maximal volley of impulses in the neurons supplying it.
- (mining) The sudden narrowing almost to nothing of a vein of ore.
- (uncountable) Elymus repens, a grass.
Derived terms
Translations
brief, small (sometimes involuntary) movement out of place and then back again
|
action of bird spotting
|
(farriery)
|
(physiology) muscle contraction
|
References
Verb
twitch (third-person singular simple present twitches, present participle twitching, simple past and past participle twitched)
- (intransitive) To perform a twitch; spasm.
- (Can we date this quote by unknown and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?), [1]
- "Why is it that you twitch whenever I say Faith?"
- 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit
- Their feet padded softly on the ground, and they crept quite close to him, twitching their noses...
- (Can we date this quote by unknown and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?), [1]
- (transitive) To jerk sharply and briefly.
- to twitch somebody's sleeve for attention
- (Can we date this quote by Alexander Pope and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Thrice they twitched the diamond in her ear.
- (obsolete) To exert oneself. [15th-17th c.]
- (transitive) To spot or seek out a bird, especially a rare one.
- 1995, Quarterly Review of Biology vol. 70 p. 348:
- "The Birdwatchers Handbook ... will be a clear asset to those who 'twitch' in Europe."
- 2003, Mark Cocker, Birders: Tales of a Tribe [2], →ISBN, page 52:
- "But the key revelation from twitching that wonderful Iceland Gull on 10 March 1974 wasn't its eroticism. It was the sheer innocence of it."
- 2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch: One Man, One Continent, a Race Against Time [3], →ISBN, page 119:
- "I hadn't seen John since I went to Adelaide to (unsuccessfully) twitch the '87 Northern Shoveler, when I was a skinny, eighteen- year-old kid. "
- 1995, Quarterly Review of Biology vol. 70 p. 348:
Translations
to perform a twitch; spasm
|
to jerk sharply and briefly
to spot a bird
|
Usage notes
When used of birdwatchers by ignorant outsiders, this term frequently carries a negative connotation.
Derived terms
Etymology 2
alternate of quitch
Noun
twitch (uncountable)
- couch grass (Elymus repens; a species of grass, often considered as a weed)
Translations
Elymus repens — see couch grass
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɪtʃ
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English informal terms
- en:Farriery
- Requests for quotations/J. H. Walsh
- en:Physiology
- en:Mining
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- Requests for date/unknown
- English transitive verbs
- Requests for date/Alexander Pope
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English ergative verbs
- en:Hordeeae tribe grasses