English Explanatory Dictionary

twist

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  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.
  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.
  10. 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.
verb
  1. To turn the ends of something, usually thread, rope etc., in opposite directions, often using force.
  2. To join together by twining one part around another.
  3. To contort; to writhe; to complicate; to crook spirally; to convolve.
  4. To wreathe; to wind; to encircle; to unite by intertexture of parts.
  5. 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. To wind; to follow a bendy or wavy course; to have many bends.
  11. To cause to rotate.
  12. To dance the twist (a type of dance characterised by twisting one's hips).
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

twĭst /twɪst/ [tw̥ɪst] en-us-twist.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-twist.wav

Word forms

twist twists twisting twisted

Etymology

PIE word *dwóh₁ 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”).

Synonyms

torque convolute braid intertwist lace betwine entwist entwine interlace interthread intertwine interweave lock raddle ruddle twine twist wrest cajole inveigle wheedle blandander blandish butter up fast-talk canoodle carny coax collogue croodle engle fleech honey around honey up hum ingle soap soft-sawder soft-soap stroke sweet-talk tweedle whilly word

Antonyms

stay stick

Derived words

arm-twist barley twist flat twist French twist gaining twist gain twist get it twisted get one's knickers in a twist hanky-twist intertwist Mason twist mule twist nigger twist nontwist overtwist plot twist retwist rope twist round the twist Russian twist self-twisting Senegalese twist stub twist supertwist twistable twist and turn twist around twist around one's little finger twist-boat twist drill twister twistfree twist grip twistical twist in the wind twist morphism twist-off twist off twist of fate twist of the knife twist someone's arm twist someone's balls twist someone's words twist splice twist the knife twist the knife in the wound twist tie twist up twistwood twisty undertwist untwist water twist
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on T Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary