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Webster 1913 Edition


Twig

Twig

(twĭg)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Twigged
(twĭgd)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Twigging
.]
[Cf.
Tweak
.]
To twitch; to pull; to tweak.
[Obs. or Scot.]

Twig

,
Verb.
T.
[Gael.
tuig
, or Ir.
tuigim
I understand.]
1.
To understand the meaning of; to comprehend; as, do you twig me?
[Colloq.]
Marryat.
2.
To observe slyly; also, to perceive; to discover.
“Now twig him; now mind him.”
Foote.
As if he were looking right into your eyes and
twigged
something there which you had half a mind to conceal.
Hawthorne.

Twig

,
Noun.
[AS.
twig
; akin to D.
twijg
, OHG.
zwīg
,
zwī
, G.
zweig
, and probably to E.
two
.]
A small shoot or branch of a tree or other plant, of no definite length or size.
The Britons had boats made of willow
twigs
, covered on the outside with hides.
Sir W. Raleigh.
Twig borer
(Zool.)
,
any one of several species of small beetles which bore into twigs of shrubs and trees, as the apple-tree
twig borer
(
Amphicerus bicaudatus
).
Twig girdler
.
(Zool.)
See
Girdler
, 3.
Twig rush
(Bot.)
,
any rushlike plant of the genus
Cladium
having hard, and sometimes prickly-edged, leaves or stalks. See
Saw grass
, under
Saw
.

Twig

,
Verb.
T.
To beat with twigs.

Webster 1828 Edition


Twig

TWIG

,
Noun.
[L. vigeo, with a prefix.] A small shoot or branch of a tree or other plant, of no definite length or size.
The Britons had boats made of willow twigs, covered on the outside with hides.

Definition 2024


twig

twig

English

Pronunciation

  • (US) IPA(key): /twɪɡ/
  • Rhymes: -ɪɡ

Noun

twig (plural twigs)

  1. 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.
Translations
Derived terms

Verb

twig (third-person singular simple present twigs, present participle twigging, simple past and past participle twigged)

  1. (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)

  1. (colloquial, regional) To realise something; to catch on.
    • He hasn't twigged that we're planning a surprise party for him.
    • 2012 May 30, John E. McIntyre, “A future for copy editors”, in Baltimore Sun:
      Well, with fewer people doing two or three times the work, you may have already twigged to this.
  2. To understand the meaning of (a person); to comprehend.
    Do you twig me?
  3. To observe slyly; also, to perceive; to discover.
    • Foote
      Now twig him; now mind him.
    • Hawthorne
      as if he were looking right into your eyes and twigged something there which you had half a mind to conceal
Translations

Etymology 3

Compare tweak.

Verb

twig (third-person singular simple present twigs, present participle twigging, simple past and past participle twigged)

  1. (obsolete, Scotland) To twitch; to pull; to tweak.