prep. Forms: 4 tuene, 5 twene, twen, twyn, 6 tweene, 7 ’tweene, 8– ’tween. Aphetic form of ATWEEN, BETWEEN.
13[?]. Cursor M., 9363 (Gött.). Tuene þain fayre acord es nane.
13[?]. Guy Warw. (A.), 4482. Þemperour cleped Herhaud him to, & aresound him tvene hem tvo.
c. 1420. ? Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 16. Twene slepyng and wakyng he bad me aryse. Ibid. (1430–40), Bochas, I. xiv. (MS. Bodl. 263), 62/1. Thus atwen yre and twen affeccion She heeld hir longe.
1443. Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 214. God send us pees twen Ynglond and Ffraunce!
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 20. Of alle thyngys lord thou art juge Twyn hym and me.
1581. A. Hall, Iliad, X. 178. Hie noise tweene them is trold.
1605. Shaks., Lear, I. ii. 12. A whole tribe of Fops Got ’tweene a sleepe, and wake.
1783. Burns, Rigs o’ Barley, i. The time flew by, wi’ tentless heed, Till ’tween the late and early.
1806. Scott, Wandering Willie, vii. But oh, how we doubt when there’s distance ’tween lovers.
b. In Combinations (cf. BETWEEN adv. 4): ’tween-brain: see quot.; ’tween doffer, a doffer intermediate between two others; ’tween-watch, DOG-WATCH. Also ’TWEEN-DECKS.
1822. Clare, Vill. Minstr., etc. (1823), I. 205. As ’tween-light hangs the eve.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 391. A small intervening cylinder, called the ’tween doffer, which carries it to the third main cylinder.
1890. Billings, Nat. Med. Dict., ’Tween-brain, portion of brain between the hemispheres and the corpora quadrigemina:… proposed as an equivalent for the German Zwischen-hirn, the second of the five vesicles of the embryonic brain.
1899. W. Churchill, R. Carvel, xx. Many and many the ’tween-watch have I passed in a coil of rope in the tops.
