Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
twitch. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
twitch, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
twitch in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
twitch you have here. The definition of the word
twitch will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
twitch, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English twicchen, from Old English *twiċċan, from Proto-West Germanic *twikkijan (“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”)).
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.
- Synonym: barnacle
1861, John Henry Walsh, The Horse in the Stable and in the Field:THE TWITCH is a short stick of strong ash, about the size of a mopstick, with a hole pierced near the end, through which is passed a piece of strong but small cord, and tied in a loop large enough to admit the open hand freely.
- (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.
- (birdwatching) A trip taken in order to observe a rare bird.
Derived terms
Translations
brief, small (sometimes involuntary) movement out of place and then back again
- Bulgarian: тик m (tik), конвулсия (bg) f (konvulsija)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 抽搐 (zh) (chōuchù)
- Czech: tik (cs) m, cukání n
- Finnish: nykäisy (fi), nykäys (fi), nytkähdys (fi), säpsähdys (fi), sätky (fi)
- French: tic (fr) m
- Galician: tic m
- German: Zuckung f, Zucken (de) n
- Italian: tic (it) m, spasimo (it) m
- Japanese: 引き攣り (ひきつり, hikitsuri)
- Maori: tākiri, tamaki, hōkai
- Polish: drgawka (pl) f, skurcz (pl) m
- Portuguese: tique (pt) m, espasmo (pt) m
- Russian: подёргивание (ru) n (podjórgivanije), су́дорога (ru) f (súdoroga), тик (ru) m (tik)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: тик m, трзај m
- Roman: tik (sh) m, trzaj (sh) m
- Slovak: šklbnutie, myknutie, trhnutie
- Spanish: tic m
- Swedish: ryckning (sv) c
|
(farriery)
- Arabic: زِيَار m (ziyār)
- Danish: bremse (da), brems c
- Dutch: praam (nl) m or f
- Finnish: huulipuristin
- French: tord-nez (fr) m, morailles (fr) f pl
- Galician: aceal (gl) m
- German: Nasenbremse f, Bremse (de) f, Klappe (de) f, Kluppe (de) f, Knuppe f, Maulholz n
- Greek:
- Ancient: προστομίς f (prostomís), ἐπιστομίς f (epistomís)
- Italian: imboccatura (it) f
- Latin: postomis, -idis f, prostomis, -idis f, epistomis, -idis f, epistomium n, repāgulum n, pāgula f, cōnfībula f (all after antiquity)
- Leonese: aceal m
- Lithuanian: premsai m pl
- Middle Dutch: kleppe, klippe f
- Middle Low German: kleppe f, klippe f, premese f, premtze f, premisse f, mūlholt n
- Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
- Polish: dutka (pl)
- Portuguese: aziar m
- Spanish: aciar (es) m, acial (es) m
- Swedish: brems (sv) c
- Turkish: please add this translation if you can
- Walloon: toitche-nez (wa) m
- Yiddish: ברעמע f (breme)
|
(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.
His fingers were nervously twitching.
- (transitive) To cause to twitch; spasm.
1921 June, Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real”, in Harper’s Bazar, volume LVI, number 6 (2504 overall), New York, N.Y.: International Magazine Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:Their feet padded softly on the ground, and they crept quite close to him, twitching their noses...
- (transitive) To jerk sharply and briefly.
to twitch somebody's sleeve for attention
1714, Alexander Pope, “The Rape of the Lock”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: W Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, , published 1717, →OCLC, canto III:Thrice they twitched the diamond in her ear.
- (obsolete) To exert oneself.
- (transitive) To spot or seek out a bird, especially a rare one.
1995, Quarterly Review of Biology, volume 70, page 348:"The Birdwatchers Handbook ... will be a clear asset to those who 'twitch' in Europe."
2003, Mark Cocker, Birders: Tales of a Tribe, →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, →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. "
Usage notes
- When used of birdwatchers by outsiders, this term frequently carries a negative connotation.
Derived terms
Translations
to jerk sharply and briefly
Descendants
Etymology 2
alternate of quitch
Noun
twitch (uncountable)
- couch grass (Elymus repens; a species of grass, often considered as a weed)
Translations