Twist \Twist\ (tw[i^]st), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Twisted; p. pr.
& vb. n. Twisting.] [OE. twisten, AS. twist a rope, as made
of two (twisted) strands, fr. twi- two; akin to D. twist a
quarrel, dissension, G. zwist, Dan. & Sw. tvist, Icel. tvistr
the deuce in cards, tvistr distressed. See Twice, Two.]
1. To contort; to writhe; to complicate; to crook spirally;
to convolve.
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Twist it into a serpentine form. --Pope.
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2. Hence, to turn from the true form or meaning; to pervert;
as, to twist a passage cited from an author.
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3. To distort, as a solid body, by turning one part
relatively to another about an axis passing through both;
to subject to torsion; as, to twist a shaft.
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4. To wreathe; to wind; to encircle; to unite by intertexture
of parts. "Longing to twist bays with that ivy." --Waller.
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There are pillars of smoke twisted about with
wreaths of flame. --T. Burnet.
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5. To wind into; to insinuate; -- used reflexively; as,
avarice twists itself into all human concerns.
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6. To unite by winding one thread, strand, or other flexible
substance, round another; to form by convolution, or
winding separate things round each other; as, to twist
yarn or thread. --Shak.
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7. Hence, to form as if by winding one part around another;
to wreathe; to make up.
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Was it not to this end
That thou began'st to twist so fine a story? --Shak.
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8. To form into a thread from many fine filaments; as, to
twist wool or cotton.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Twist \Twist\, v. i.
1. To be contorted; to writhe; to be distorted by torsion; to
be united by winding round each other; to be or become
twisted; as, some strands will twist more easily than
others.
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2. To follow a helical or spiral course; to be in the form of
a helix.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Twist \Twist\, n.
1. The act of twisting; a contortion; a flexure; a
convolution; a bending.
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Not the least turn or twist in the fibers of any one
animal which does not render them more proper for
that particular animal's way of life than any other
cast or texture. --Addison.
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2. The form given in twisting.
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[He] shrunk at first sight of it; he found fault
with the length, the thickness, and the twist.
--Arbuthnot.
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3. That which is formed by twisting, convoluting, or uniting
parts. Specifically:
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(a) A cord, thread, or anything flexible, formed by
winding strands or separate things round each other.
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(b) A kind of closely twisted, strong sewing silk, used by
tailors, saddlers, and the like.
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(c) A kind of cotton yarn, of several varieties.
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(d) A roll of twisted dough, baked.
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(e) A little twisted roll of tobacco.
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(f) (Weaving) One of the threads of a warp, -- usually
more tightly twisted than the filling.
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(g) (Firearms) A material for gun barrels, consisting of
iron and steel twisted and welded together; as,
Damascus twist.
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(h) (Firearms & Ord.) The spiral course of the rifling of
a gun barrel or a cannon.
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(i) A beverage made of brandy and gin. [Slang]
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4. [OE.; -- so called as being a two-forked branch. See
Twist, v. t.] A twig. [Obs.] --Chaucer. Fairfax.
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5. Act of imparting a turning or twisting motion, as to a
pitched ball; also, the motion thus imparted; as, the
twist of a billiard ball.
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6. A strong individual tendency, or bent; a marked
inclination; a bias; -- often implying a peculiar or
unusual tendency; as, a twist toward fanaticism.
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Gain twist, or Gaining twist (Firearms), twist of which
the pitch is less, and the inclination greater, at the
muzzle than at the breech.
Twist drill, a drill the body of which is twisted like that
of an auger. See Illust. of Drill.
Uniform twist (Firearms), a twist of which the spiral
course has an equal pitch throughout.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
twist
n 1: an unforeseen development; "events suddenly took an awkward
turn" [syn: turn, turn of events]
2: an interpretation of a text or action; "they put an
unsympathetic construction on his conduct" [syn: construction]
3: any clever (deceptive) maneuver; "he would stoop to any
device to win a point" [syn: device, gimmick]
4: the act of rotating rapidly; "he gave the crank a spin"; "it
broke off after much twisting" [syn: spin, twirl, twisting,
whirl]
5: a sharp strain on muscles or ligaments; "the wrench to his
knee occurred as he fell"; "he was sidelined with a
hamstring pull" [syn: wrench, pull]
6: a sharp bend in a line produced when a line having a loop is
pulled tight [syn: kink, twirl]
7: a miniature whirlpool or whirlwind resulting when the
current of a fluid doubles back on itself [syn: eddy]
8: a jerky pulling movement [syn: wrench]
9: a hairdo formed by braiding or twisting the hair [syn: braid,
plait, tress]
10: social dancing in which couples vigorously twist their hips
and arms in time to the music; was popular in the 1960s;
"they liked to dance the twist"
11: the act of winding or twisting; "he put the key in the old
clock and gave it a good wind" [syn: wind, winding]
12: turning or twisting around (in place); "with a quick twist
of his head he surveyed the room" [syn: turn]
v 1: to move in a twisting or contorted motion, (especially when
struggling); "The prisoner writhed in discomfort"; "The
child tried to wriggle free from his aunt's embrace"
[syn: writhe, wrestle, wriggle, worm, squirm]
2: cause (a plastic object) to assume a crooked or angular
form; "bend the rod"; "twist the dough into a braid"; "the
strong man could turn an iron bar" [syn: flex, bend, deform,
turn] [ant: unbend]
3: turn in the opposite direction; "twist a wire"
4: form into a spiral shape; "The cord is all twisted" [syn: twine,
distort] [ant: untwist]
5: form into twists; "Twist the bacon around the sausage"
6: do the twist
7: twist or pull violently or suddenly, especially so as to
remove (something) from that to which it is attached or
from where it originates; "wrench a window off its
hinges"; "wrench oneself free from somebody's grip"; "a
deep sigh was wrenched from his chest" [syn: wrench]
8: practice sophistry; change the meaning of or be vague about
in order to mislead or deceive [syn: twist around, pervert,
convolute, sophisticate]
9: twist suddenly so as to sprain; "wrench one's ankle"; "The
wrestler twisted his shoulder"; "the hikers sprained their
ankles when they fell"; "I turned my ankle and couldn't
walk for several days" [syn: sprain, wrench, turn, wrick,
rick]
WordNet (r) 2.0
624 Moby Thesaurus words for "twist":
a thing for, aberrancy, aberration, action, adulterate, affinity,
afflict, agonize, ail, alloy, alter, alteration, anagnorisis,
analysis, anamorphism, anamorphosis, angle, angle off, animus,
approach, aptitude, aptness, architectonics, architecture,
argument, aspect, asymmetry, atmosphere, background, balmy, barmy,
batty, bear off, belie, bend, bent, bias, birthmark, bite,
blackhead, bleb, blemish, blister, bonkers, bonus, bow, braid,
brail, branching off, buckle, bulla, bully, bun, burlesque, burn,
cable, camouflage, canker, caricature, cast, catastrophe,
cavendish, chafe, change, character, characterization, chaw,
cheapen, check, chew, chewing tobacco, chignon, cicatrix,
cicatrize, circle, circuitousness, circulate, circumrotate,
circumvolute, cirrus, coarsen, coerce, coil, color, coloring,
comedo, complication, conatus, conduciveness, configuration,
confound, constitution, construal, construction, contaminate,
continuity, contort, contortion, contrivance, convulse, cord,
corkscrew, corner, corrupt, crack, crank, crater, craze, crazy,
crinkle, crook, crookedness, crotchet, crucify, crumple, cuckoo,
cud, cue, curl, curlicue, curve, cut, cut plug, daft, debase,
declination, decoration, deface, defacement, defect, defile,
deflect, deflower, deform, deformation, deformity, degenerate,
degrade, delight, denature, denouement, departure, deprave,
desecrate, design, despoil, detorsion, detour, devalue,
development, deviance, deviancy, deviate, deviation, device,
deviousness, diathesis, diffract, diffuse, digression, discursion,
disfiguration, disfigure, disfigurement, disguise, disperse,
disposition, disproportion, distort, distortion, distress,
divagate, divagation, divarication, diverge, divergence, diversion,
divert, dogleg, double, dress up, drift, drifting, eagerness,
eating tobacco, eccentric, eccentricity, effect, eidolon,
embellish, embroider, enlace, entwine, episode, err, errantry,
evolute, exaggerate, excruciate, excurse, excursion, excursus,
exorbitation, extra, extra added attraction, extra dash, fable,
facet, failing, falling action, falsification, falsify, fashion,
fault, favoritism, feature, feeling for, fester, fid, figure,
filigree, filling, fillip, flaw, flourish, foible, force,
forejudgment, form, freckle, fret, frill, fudge, gall, garble,
garbling, gestalt, gild, gimmick, give pain, gloss, gloss over,
gnarl, gnaw, go adrift, go around, go astray, go round, grain,
grate, grind, gripe, guise, gyrate, gyre, hairpin, harrow, helix,
hemangioma, hickey, hurt, idiosyncrasy, image, imago, imbalance,
impression, incident, inclination, incongruity, inconsistency,
indirection, individualism, infect, inflame, inflict pain,
influence, insane, interknit, interlace, interpretation, intertie,
intertissue, intertwine, intertwist, interweave, intort, involute,
irregularity, irritate, jaundice, jaundiced eye, keloid, kidney,
kill by inches, kink, knit, knot, lace, lacerate, lagniappe,
leaning, lentigo, liability, ligament, ligation, ligature, light,
likeness, liking, line, lineaments, local color, look, loom, loop,
lopsidedness, lurch, mad, make, makeup, manner, mar, martyr,
martyrize, mask, mat, meander, mental set, mettle, milium, mind,
mind-set, miscite, miscolor, misconstruction, misconstrue,
misinterpret, misinterpretation, misquotation, misquote, misreport,
misrepresent, misrepresentation, misstate, misstatement, misteach,
mistranslate, mistranslation, misunderstand, misunderstanding,
misuse, mold, mole, mood, motif, movement, mythos, nature, navy,
navy plug, needle scar, net, nevus, nip, noose, nuts, nutty,
oblique, obliquity, oddity, one-sidedness, ornament, overdraw,
overstate, padding, pain, parody, partialism, partiality,
partisanship, peculiarity, penchant, pererrate, pererration,
peripeteia, persuade, perversion, pervert, phase, phasis, pierce,
pigtail, pimple, pinch, pirouette, pit, pivot, plait, plan, pleach,
plot, pock, pockmark, poison, pollute, port-wine mark,
port-wine stain, preconception, predilection, predisposition,
preference, prejudgment, prejudice, prejudice against,
prejudice the issue, premium, prepossess, prepossession, pressure,
prick, probability, proclivity, prolong the agony, proneness,
propensity, prostitute, pull, pustule, put to torture, queue, quid,
quirk, rack, raddle, ramble, rambling, rankle, rasp, rattail,
ravage, ravish, readiness, recognition, reference, refract, regard,
respect, revolve, rick, rift, ringlet, rising action, roll, rope,
rotate, round, round the bend, rove, rub, scab, scallop, scar,
scarify, scatter, scheme, scratch, screw, scroll, sebaceous cyst,
secondary plot, seeming, semblance, sensitivity to, serpentine,
set, shape, sheer, shift, shifting, shifting course, shifting path,
side, simulacrum, skew, slant, slink, slue, snake, soft spot,
something extra, spin, spiral, splice, split, sprain, spring,
spun yarn, squirm, stab, stamp, sting, story, straggle, strain,
strawberry mark, stray, straying, streak, string, stripe,
structure, stuffing, sty, style, subject, subplot, superaddition,
susceptibility, sway, sweep, swerve, swerving, swing, swinging,
swirl, switch, swivel, tack, tail, taint, temper, temperament,
tendency, tendon, tendril, thematic development, theme, thong,
tissue, titivate, tobacco juice, tone, topic, topknot, torment,
torsion, tortuosity, torture, total effect, track, travesty,
treatment, trick, trick out, trimming, tropism, turn,
turn a pirouette, turn around, turn awry, turn of mind, turn round,
turning, tweak, twill, twine, twirl, twist and turn, type,
ulcerate, understanding, understate, undetachment,
undispassionateness, unsymmetry, variation, varnish, veer, verruca,
version, vesicle, view, viewpoint, violate, vitiate, volute,
volution, vortex, vulgarize, wale, wamble, wander, wandering, warp,
wart, wattle, weakness, weal, weave, web, welt, wen, wheel, whirl,
whitehead, whitewash, whorl, wiggle, willingness, wind, wire, wise,
worm, wound, wreathe, wrench, wrest, wriggle, wring, wrinkle,
writhe, yarn, yaw, zigzag
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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