sb. and int. [Echoic.] An imitation of the note of a small bird. Also repeated.
Cf. tueit in the Compl. Scot. (1549), VI. 39.
1845. Zoologist, III. 1063. Its usual note is monosyllabic, and like tweet, tweet, tweet.
1851. G. Meredith, S.-W.-Wind in Woodland, 8. A chirp or tweet, That utters fear or anxious love.
1897. A. H. Rea, in Bards, Angus & Mearns, 378. I heard the skylark singing gay, The tweet o’ tiny wren.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 3 Dec., 10/1. ‘Wheet, tweet, tweet,’… they [quails] called in the meadows.
1910. Blackw. Mag., Feb., 286/1. The ‘tweet tweet’ of the snipe.
Hence Tweet v. trans., to utter in this way, to twitter; also transf.
1851. G. Meredith, Pastorals, v. The little bird … Tweets to its mate a tiny loving note.
1891. S. Mostyn, Curatica, 63. ‘Oh,’ tweet-tweets a diaconal pullet, ‘how splendid!’
1902. Westm. Gaz., 8 Oct., 8/2. The tweet-tweeting chicks make as much noise in their way as the crowing cockerels.
