twist

Meanings

Noun

• A twisting force.
• Anything twisted, or the act of twisting.
• The form given in twisting.
• The degree of stress or strain when twisted.
• A type of thread made from two filaments twisted together.
• A sliver of lemon peel added to a cocktail, etc.
• A sudden bend (or short series of bends) in a road, path, etc.
• A distortion to the meaning of a word or passage.
• An unexpected turn in a story, tale, etc.
• A type of dance characterised by rotating one’s hips. See Twist (dance) on Wikipedia for more details.
• A rotation of the body when diving.
• A sprain, especially to the ankle.
• A twig.
• A girl, a woman.
• A roll or baton of baked dough or pastry in a twisted shape.
• A small roll of tobacco.
• A material for gun barrels, consisting of iron and steel twisted and welded together.
• The spiral course of the rifling of a gun barrel or a cannon.
• A beverage made of brandy and gin.
• A strong individual tendency or bent; inclination.
• An appetite for food.

Verb

• To turn the ends of something, usually thread, rope etc., in opposite directions, often using force.
• To join together by twining one part around another.
• To contort; to writhe; to complicate; to crook spirally; to convolve.
• To wreathe; to wind; to encircle; to unite by intertexture of parts.
• To wind into; to insinuate.
• To turn a knob etc.
• To distort or change the truth or meaning of words when repeating.
• To form a twist (in any of the above noun meanings).
• To injure (a body part) by bending it in the wrong direction.
• To wind; to follow a bendy or wavy course; to have many bends.
• To cause to rotate.
• To dance the twist (a type of dance characterised by twisting one's hips).
• To coax.
• In the game of blackjack (pontoon or twenty-one), to be dealt another card.

Origin

• From Middle English twist, from Old English *twist, in compounds (e.g. mæsttwist, candeltwist), from Proto-Germanic *twistaz, a derivative of *twi- (compare also twine, between, betwixt).
• Related to Saterland Frisian Twist, Dutch twist, German Low German Twist, German Zwist, Swedish tvist, Icelandic tvistur.
• The verb is from Middle English twisten. Compare Dutch twisten, Danish tviste ("to dispute"), Swedish tvista ("to argue; dispute").