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twig. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
twig, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
twig in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
twig you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology 1
From Middle English twig, twyg, from Old English twiġ, from Proto-Germanic *twīgą (compare West Frisian twiich, Dutch twijg, German Zweig), from Proto-Indo-European *dweygʰom (compare Old Church Slavonic двигъ (dvigŭ, “branch”), Albanian degë (“branch”)), from *dwóh₁. More at two.
Pronunciation
Noun
twig (plural twigs)
- 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: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.
- (bodybuilding, slang) Somebody, or one of his body parts, not looking developed.
2007 February 24, Matt Weik, CSCS, “Successful Tips and Tricks For Contest Prep!”, in Bodybuilding.com:You need to find a source of motivation and play off of that. Whether it be the jock in high school that always called you fat, or the guy who picked on you and called you a twig.
2022 July 19, Jason Rossi, “Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Most Dangerous Mistake on ‘True Lies’: ‘It Would Have Put Us Back 30 Days in the Production’”, in Showbiz CheatSheet:Schwarzenegger was long past his professional bodybuilding days when he and Carrere shot the tango scene, but he wasn’t a twig.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
a small thin branch
- Abkhaz: please add this translation if you can
- Adyghe: please add this translation if you can
- Afrikaans: takkie
- Aghwan: please add this translation if you can
- Ainu: please add this translation if you can
- Akan: please add this translation if you can
- Aklanon: please add this translation if you can
- Albanian: please add this translation if you can
- Arabic: غُصَّيْن m (ḡuṣṣayn)
- Aragonese: branca (an)
- Armenian: շիվ (hy) (šiv)
- Assamese: ঠানি (thani), ঠালি (thali), ডালি (dali)
- Azerbaijani: please add this translation if you can
- Bashkir: ботаҡ (botaq), сыбыҡ (sıbıq)
- Basque: please add this translation if you can
- Belarusian: галіна́ (be) f (haliná), галі́нка f (halínka)
- Bulgarian: кло́нка (bg) f (klónka), ве́йка (bg) f (véjka)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 枝 (zh) (zhī)
- Czech: větvička (cs) f
- Danish: kvist (da) c
- Dutch: twijg (nl)
- Esperanto: branĉeto
- Estonian: oks (et), vits
- Faroese: kvistur m
- Finnish: vitsa (fi), risu (fi) (dry twig)
- French: brindille (fr) f
- Galician: guizo m, bringa f, verga (gl) f, garabullo m
- Georgian: please add this translation if you can
- German: Zweig (de) m
- Greek:
- Ancient: κάρφος n (kárphos)
- Higaonon: sanga
- Hungarian: gally (hu)
- Icelandic: kvistur (is) m
- Ingrian: vitsa
- Irish: craobhóg f
- Italian: ramoscello (it) m, verga (it) f, rametto (it) m
- Japanese: 小枝 (ja) (こえだ, koeda), 枝 (ja) (えだ, eda)
- Korean: 나뭇가지 (ko) (namutgaji)
- Latin: rāmulus m, virga f
- Latvian: please add this translation if you can
- Lithuanian: šakelė f, šaka (lt) f
- Low German: Twieg m
- Macedonian: гранче n (granče)
- Malay: ranting (ms)
- Malayalam: ചുള്ളി (ml) (cuḷḷi)
- Maori: tākupu, kōetoeto (used in the plural), rārā, puaka
- Middle English: twygge
- Norman: brantchette f
- Norwegian: kvist m
- Old English: twiġ (ang) n
- Persian: ترکه (fa) (tarke)
- Polish: gałązka (pl) f, witka (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)
- Thai: กิ่ง (th) (gìng)
- Turkish: çalı çırpı (tr)
- Ukrainian: гі́лка (uk) f (hílka), гі́лочка f (híločka), галу́зка f (halúzka)
- Urdu: please add this translation if you can
- Uzbek: please add this translation if you can
- Vietnamese: cành (vi), nhánh (vi)
- Volapük: please add this translation if you can
- Welsh: please add this translation if you can
- West Coast Bajau: please add this translation if you can
- Wolof: please add this translation if you can
- Yámana: please add this translation if you can
- Yiddish: please add this translation if you can
- Yucatec Maya: please add this translation if you can
- Yup'ik: please add this translation if you can
- Zazaki: sılo (diq) m
- Zhuang: please add this translation if you can
- Zulu: please add this translation if you can
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Verb
twig (third-person singular simple present twigs, present participle twigging, simple past and past participle twigged)
- (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)
- (colloquial, regional) To realise something; to catch on; to recognize someone or something.
He hasn't twigged that we're planning a surprise party for him.
1765, “A Song in High Life”, in The Merry Medley, volume 1, London: W. Hoggard, page 35:I pray you now send me some dub, / A bottle or two to the needy. / I beg you won't bring it yourself, / The harman is at the Old-Bailey; / I'd rather you'd send it behalf, / For, if they twig you they'll nail you.
1915, “Putting on the Screw”, in Caught in the Net, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, translation of Les Esclaves de Paris by Émile Gaboriau, page 23:I twigged him at once, by the description you gave me. I never see a cove togged out as he was,—tall hat, light sit-down-upons, and a short coat—wasn't it cut short! but in really bang-up style.- J'y ai reconnu le particulier que vous m'avez dit. Bien vêtu, ma foi! Chapeau rogné, tout plat, pantalon clair, en fourreau de parapluie, veston court, oh! mais d'un court... enfin, le dernier genre.
2012 May 30, John E. McIntyre, “A future for copy editors”, in Baltimore Sun, archived from the original on 23 June 2013:Well, with fewer people doing two or three times the work, you may have already twigged to this.
2019 March 13, Drachinifel, 18:23 from the start, in The Russian 2nd Pacific Squadron - Voyage of the Damned, archived from the original on 29 January 2023:At this point in our story, we first meet the fleet repair ship Kamchatka, who everyone would soon become regrettably familiar with. Her entry into our account here was her signal that she was under attack by torpedo boats! When she was asked how many, she replied "about eight, from all directions!". Eventually, someone twigged to the fact that absolutely nobody else could see so much as a seagull, let alone any exceptionally-lost Japanese torpedo boats. And, when nothing actually happened, Kamchatka refused to say that it was a false alarm, only that it had altered course and the torpedo boats had gone away.
- To understand the meaning of (a person); to comprehend.
Do you twig me?
- To observe slyly; also, to perceive; to discover.
1863, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Our Old Home:This excellent man appears to have sunk into himself in a sitting posture, […] while his exceedingly homely and wrinkled face, held a little on one side, twinkles at you with the shrewdest complacency, as if he were looking right into your eyes and twigged something there which you had half a mind to conceal from him.
Synonyms
Translations
to realise something
- Bulgarian: схващам (bg) (shvaštam), загрявам (bg) (zagrjavam)
- French: entraver (fr), capter (fr), piger (fr)
- German: mitbekommen (de), mitkriegen (de), (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)
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Etymology 3
Compare tweak.
Verb
twig (third-person singular simple present twigs, present participle twigging, simple past and past participle twigged)
- (obsolete, Scotland) To pull
1755, John Shebbeare, Lydia: Or, Filial Piety:Frank shall twig your Nose from your Face
- To twitch
- To tweak
References
Middle English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Inherited from Old English twig, from Proto-West Germanic *twīg, from Proto-Germanic *twīgą.
Pronunciation
Noun
twig (plural twigges)
- Any part of a tree, especially a branch or cutting:
- A twig or tillow; a shoot branching off a tree.
- An easily bending branch used in crafts.
- (figurative, rare) A subtype or part of something; the result or descendant of something.
Descendants
References
Old English
Etymology
From Proto-Germanic *twīgą.
Pronunciation
Noun
twiġ n
- twig
- branch
Declension
Declension of twig (strong a-stem)
Descendants