twist

twist

synonyms, antonyms, definitions, examples & translations of twist in English

English Online Dictionary. What means twist‎? What does twist mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English twist, from Old English *twist, in compounds (e.g. mæsttwist (“a rope; stay”), candeltwist (“a wick”)), from Proto-Germanic *twistaz, a derivative of *twi- (“two-”) (compare also twine, between, betwixt).

Related to Saterland Frisian Twist (“discord”), Dutch twist (“twist; strife; discord”), German Low German Twist (“strife; discord”), German Zwist (“turmoil; strife; discord”), Swedish tvist (“quarrel; dispute”), Icelandic tvistur (“deuce”).

The verb is from Middle English twisten. Compare Dutch twisten, Danish tviste (“to dispute”), Swedish tvista (“to argue; dispute”).

Pronunciation

  • enPR: twĭst, IPA(key): /twɪst/, [tw̥ɪst]
  • Rhymes: -ɪst

Noun

twist (countable and uncountable, plural twists)

  1. A twisting force.
  2. Anything twisted, or the act of twisting.
  3. The form given in twisting.
  4. The degree of stress or strain when twisted.
  5. A type of thread made from two filaments twisted together.
    • 1808–1810, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, page 140:
      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.
  6. A sliver of lemon peel added to a cocktail, etc.
  7. A sudden bend (or short series of bends) in a road, path, etc.
  8. A distortion to the meaning of a passage or word.
  9. An unexpected turn in a story, tale, etc.
    I'm all agog at the new twist to the royal scandal.
    • 2007 September 7, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 2, Episode 3:
      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 twist?...
      Douglas: Oh, I've heard of this flick. There's a twist in it, isn't there?... I bet he's a woman, that bloke. No, you think it's the future, but it's actually set in the past. It's not Earth. It's all a dream!... They're all clones. He's his own brother. Everyone's a ghost.
  10. (preceded by definite article) A 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.
  11. A rotation of the body when diving.
  12. A sprain, especially to the ankle.
  13. (obsolete) A twig.
  14. (slang) A girl, a woman.
    • 1990, Miller's Crossing, 01:08:20
      (Dane, speaking about a woman character) "I'll see where the twist flops"
  15. A roll or baton of baked dough or pastry in a twisted shape.
  16. (countable, uncountable) A small roll of tobacco.
  17. A material for gun barrels, consisting of iron and steel twisted and welded together.
  18. The spiral course of the rifling of a gun barrel or a cannon.
  19. (obsolete, slang) A beverage made of brandy and gin.
  20. A strong individual tendency or bent; inclination.
  21. (slang, archaic) An appetite for food.
  22. Ellipsis of hair twist.

Descendants

  • German: Twist

Translations

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.
    Synonym: torque
  2. To join together by twining one part around another.
  3. 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.
  4. To wreathe; to wind; to encircle; to unite by intertexture of parts.
  5. (reflexive) To wind into; to insinuate.
  6. To turn a knob etc.
  7. To distort or change the truth or meaning of words when repeating.
  8. To form a twist (in any of the above noun meanings).
  9. To injure (a body part) by bending it in the wrong direction.
  10. (intransitive, of a path) To wind; to follow a bendy or wavy course; to have many bends.
  11. (transitive) To cause to rotate.
  12. (intransitive) To dance the twist (a type of dance characterised by twisting one's hips).
  13. (transitive) To coax.
  14. (card games) In the game of blackjack (pontoon or twenty-one), to be dealt another card.

Antonyms

(antonym(s) of “in blackjack, be dealt another card”):: stick; stay

Translations

Derived terms

Anagrams

  • twits, witts

Czech

Etymology

Borrowed from English twist.

Noun

twist m inan

  1. twist (dance)

Declension

Further reading

  • “twist”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)
  • “twist”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /tʋɪst/
  • Rhymes: -ɪst

Etymology 1

From Proto-Germanic *twistaz (“strife, quarrel”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Twist (“discord”), German Low German Twist (“strife; discord”), German Zwist (“turmoil; strife; discord”), Swedish tvist (“quarrel; dispute”), Icelandic tvistur (“deuce”), and English twist.

Noun

twist m (uncountable, diminutive twistje n)

  1. strife, discord
  2. dispute
Derived terms
  • redetwisten
  • twistappel

Etymology 2

From English twist.

Noun

twist m (uncountable, diminutive twistje n)

  1. twist: dance, turn

Anagrams

  • witst

Finnish

Etymology

From English twist.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈtwist/, [ˈt̪wis̠t]
  • IPA(key): /ˈtʋist/, [ˈt̪ʋis̠t]
  • Rhymes: -ist
  • Syllabification(key): twist
  • Hyphenation(key): twist

Noun

twist

  1. twist (dance)

Declension

Derived terms

Further reading

  • “twist”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎[1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-03

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English twist.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /twist/

Noun

twist m (plural twists)

  1. twist (dance)

Derived terms

  • twister

Further reading

  • “twist”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle English

Alternative forms

  • twest, tweste, twiste, twyst, twyste

Etymology

From Old English *twist (attested in compounds), from Proto-West Germanic *twist, from Proto-Germanic *twistaz.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /twist/

Noun

twist (plural twistes)

  1. The flat part of a hinge (less specifically the entire hinge)
  2. A twig or branch.
  3. A groin (juncture between the chest and thighs)

Derived terms

  • twisten

Descendants

  • English: twist
  • Scots: twist

References

  • “twist, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Polish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English twist.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈtwist/
  • Rhymes: -ist
  • Syllabification: twist

Noun

twist m animal

  1. twist (type of dance)
  2. (music) twist (music to this dance)
  3. twist (beverage made of brandy and gin)
  4. jar with a threaded neck and a screw cap allowing airtight sealing
  5. screw cap for this type of jar

Declension

Derived terms

Further reading

  • twist in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English twist.

Pronunciation

Noun

twist m (uncountable)

  1. twist (type of dance)

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English twist or French twist.

Noun

twist n (plural twisturi)

  1. twist (dance)

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English twist.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈtwist/ [ˈt̪wist̪]
  • Rhymes: -ist

Noun

twist m (plural twists)

  1. twist (clarification of this definition is needed)

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading

  • “twist”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

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This article based on an article on Wiktionary. The list of authors can be seen in the page history there. The original work has been modified. This article is distributed under the terms of this license.