twitch meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

twitch

noun

/twɪt͡ʃ/ · [tʰw̥ɪt͡ʃ]

Etymology 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”)).

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, Hobbies, Horses, Lifestyle, Pets, Sports 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.

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.1861, John Henry Walsh, The Horse in the Stable and in the Field:

Medicine, Physiology, Sciences A brief, contractile response of a skeletal muscle elicited by a single maximal volley of impulses in the neurons supplying it.

Business, Mining The sudden narrowing almost to nothing of a vein of ore.

Biology, Birdwatching, Natural sciences, Ornithology A trip taken in order to observe a rare bird.

Siberian Crane [...] Following its departure, there was much speculation that rediscovery at a less inaccessible locality would lead to one of the great twitches of 1981; alas, this was not to be.1982, British Birds, volume 75, number 11, London, page 498:

Derived terms: angletwitch, fast-twitch, nervous twitch, sleep twitch, slow-twitch, twitchet, twitch fire, twitch game, twitch gameplay, twitch grass, twitchlike, twitchy

twitch

verb

To perform a twitch; spasm.

His fingers were nervously twitching.

To cause to twitch; spasm.

Their feet padded softly on the ground, and they crept quite close to him, twitching their noses...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:

To jerk sharply and briefly.

to twitch somebody's sleeve for attention
Thrice they twitched the diamond in her ear.1714, Alexander Pope, “The Rape of the Lock”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC, canto III:

Obsolete To exert oneself.

Biology, Birdwatching, Natural sciences, Ornithology To spot or seek out a bird, especially a rare one.

Marsh Sandpiper [...] This delicate ‘mini shank’ has graced our shores for the past six successive years and has become increasingly easy to twitch.1982, British Birds, volume 75, number 11, London, page 504:
"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."2003, Mark Cocker, Birders: Tales of a Tribe, →ISBN, page 52:

1 more example

"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. "2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch: One Man, One Continent, a Race Against Time, →ISBN, page 119:

Biology, Birdwatching, Natural sciences, Ornithology To engage in twitching.

"The Birdwatchers Handbook ... will be a clear asset to those who 'twitch' in Europe."1995, Quarterly Review of Biology, volume 70, page 348:

Derived terms: atwitch, twerk, twitchable, twitcher, twitching, untwitchable

twitch

noun

Etymology alternate of quitch

couch grass (Elymus repens; a species of grass, often considered as a weed)

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.

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Conjugation of “twitch”, all tenses