Forms: 1–2, 4–7 twigge (1 tuigge, tuicg-), 4–6 twygge (4 pl. tuygges, tuyegges); 2, 4 twige, 4 tvige, 6 twike; 4–5 tuyg, 4–6 twyg, 6–7 twygg, 5– twig (6 Sc. tuig, 7 twigg). [Northern OE. twigge fem. (pl. twiggo), obscurely related to OE. twiʓ neut. (pl. twiʓu), later also twí. Neither trigge nor twiʓ correspond exactly to the usual Continental forms having the same sense, viz. WFris. twiich, twige (NFris. twich), Du. twijg (Kilian twijgh), MLG. twîch (LG. twîg), OHG. zwîg (MHG. zwîg-, zwîc, G. zweig), but the Da. dial. forms tveg, tvege, may be more closely akin to twigge or to the ME. variant twige. All the types appear to be variant formations from the stem TWI-.]
1. A slender shoot issuing from a branch or stem.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Mk. xi 8 Oðero … ða twiggo vel ða telʓo … rendon of ðæm trewum. Ibid., xiii. 28. Mið-ðy … telʓe vel twigge his … nesc bið.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 5. Heo stiȝen uppe on þe godes cunnes treowe & nomen þa twigga & þa blostme. Ibid., 149. Hwenne he … for his sunne swingeð him mið smele twige.
13[?]. Guy Warw. (A.), 2542. Wiþ þat come Gij…, a smal tvige in his hond bereinde Of oliue.
1340. [see b].
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, III. 846. Al thys hous … Was made of twigges [v.rr. twygges, twigys] falwe, rede, And grene eke.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. i. (Bodl. MS.) A tre haþ … outeward … þe rinde twigges leues blossomes and fruyte.
1415. Hoccleve, To Sir J. Oldcastle, 471. A smal twig or rod.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 13. A little twigge plyaunt is by kinde, A bigger branche is harde to bowe or winde.
a. 1552. Leland, Itin. (1711), V. 75. Hole Trees … without Twike or Bow.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 39. Capercalȝe … lyues of only the tuigs or tendir branches of this [fir] trie.
1637. J. Taylor (Water P.), Drinke & Welcome, D j b. My Muse doth … like a Squirrell skip, from twigge to twigge.
1732. Pope, Ep. Cobham, 150. Just as the Twig is bent, the Tree’s inclin’d.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 48.4 These … love life, and cling to it, as he That overhangs a torrent, to a twig.
1851. Carpenter, Man. Phys. (ed. 2), 107. Fibrine … may be obtained by whipping fresh blood with a bundle of twigs.
1906. Times, Lit. Supp., 23 March, 99/2. The snap of a twig … gave the alarm.
b. transf. and fig., and in fig. context.
To hop the twig (slang): see HOP v. 6 a.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., John xv. 5. Ic am þe wintreo, ʓie ða tuiggo [L. palmites] sint.
1340. Ayenb., 22. Þe uerþe tuyg of þe ilke boȝe [of pride] … is yelpingge. Ibid., 41. Þe zixte boȝ of auarice is symonye … And þes boȝ heþ manie tuygges.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pars. T., ¶ 315. Euerich of thise chief synnes hath hise braunches and hise twigges.
1535. Coverdale, Isa. ix. 14. The Lorde shal rote out of Israel both heade and tale, braunch and twygge in one daye.
1553. Respublica, I. iii. 339. Adul. Doe but whistle for me, and I comme foorth with-all. Avar. … I love suche a towarde twygg.
a. 1623. Fletcher, Love’s Cure, II. ii. Traiterous brat,… impious twig Of that old stock, dew’d with my kinsman’s gore.
1678. in Trial E. Coleman, 100. They would not you should have any Twigg to hold by to deceive you.
1764. Ld. Halifax, Lett., 11 March., in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 363. I was willing to keep Hold of any Twig of Hope that was left me.
1827. G. Higgins, Celtic Druids, 24. [The Irish] characters were called twigs and branch-letters … from their shape.
† c. collect. as the material for basket-making. Obs. rare.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., III. 209. Let make a skeppe of twygge.
1661. Rec. Basketmakers Co. (1911), 114. Paid an officer for seizing 10,000 of twigg at Bull Wharfe. 00. 05. 00.
2. spec. a. Short for LIME-TWIG (obs.); also, in pl., the twigs forming a birch-rod.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, III. vi. 115. I must go looke my twigges, He shall be caught. [Ibid. (1603), Meas. for M., I. iii. 24. Fond Fathers, Hauing bound vp the threatning twigs of birch, Onely to sticke it in their childrens sight, For terror, not to vse.]
1622. Bp. Hall, Contempl., O. T., XVII. iii. Wise Salomon … laies insensible twigs for so foule an offender.
1736. Gentl. Mag., Nov., 679/2. Ye awful twigs!… Long may ye … far from my posteriors keep your sway!
1896. Max Pemberton, Purit. Wife, iii. I had smarted often at the switch of his twigs.
b. dial. (a) A stout stick. (b) A divining-rod (cf. ROD sb.1 3 c). To work the twig, to use the divining-rod.
1842. B. Brierley, Lanc. Tales & Sk., 87. [He] could not see that his ‘twig’ would stand any chance against a bayonet.
18[?]. in T. Allan, Tyneside Songs (1872), 201. Aw danced a jig an’ swung my twig.
1883. Folk-Lore Jrnl., I. 28. At one spot the ‘twig’ was so violently affected that it flew out of his hands.
1883. A. Lang, Custom & Myth (1884), 180. ‘To work the twig’ is rural English for the craft of Dousterswivel in the Antiquary.
1894. [see DOWSE v.].
3. transf. Anat. A small ramification of a blood-vessel or nerve.
1683. A. Snape, Anat. Horse, I. ix. (1686), 18. The Stomachal Arteries are twigs from the Coeliacal branch of the Arteria magna Ibid., xvi. 33. A Twig of the Splenic Artery opens into this Vein.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1692), 14. Particular Branches send forth some twigs to the neighbouring Muscles.
1741. Monro, Anat. Nerves (ed. 3), 80. A Twig of the Ophthalmick Branch of the fifth Pair of Nerves.
1831. R. Knox, Cloquet’s Anat., 684. This artery gives numerous twigs to the pectoralis major.
1875. Huxley, in Encycl. Brit., I. 766/1. The pulmonary artery gives twigs to the stomach.
4. Pottery. ‘A thin strip of plastic clay used in modelling a pottery vessel, especially in the imitation basketwork common in Leeds pottery’ (Cent. Dict., 1891).
5. attrib. and Comb. a. attrib. (usually = ‘made of twigs’), as twig-basket, -broom, charcoal, corf, -cutter, † head (? HEAD sb. 5), -hurdle, ware. b. instrumental, similative, etc., as twig-formed, -green, -like, -limed, -strewn, -suspended, -wrought, adjs. c. Spec. Comb.: twig-ait: see quot.; twig-beetle, -borer (U.S.), names for various small beetles that bore into the twigs of trees (Cent. Dict. & Supp., 1891–1909); twig-blight (U.S.), a disease of the apple and quince, caused by Micrococcus amylovorus: see pear-blight a, PEAR sb. 5 (Cent. Dict., 1889); † twig-bottle, a bottle with a wicker envelope; twig-bug (U.S.) = twig insect; twig-climber: see quot.; twig-gall, an abnormal enlargement of a twig, due to the action of insects, fungi or bacteria; twig-girdler (U.S.), an American beetle, Oncideres cingulatus, which deposits its eggs in the tips of twigs, which it then girdles below the eggs (Cent. Dict., 1891); twig insect, the stick-insect or ‘walking-stick’; twig-pruner (U.S.), an American beetle of the genus Elaphidion, which burrows in twigs of oak and hickory (Cent. Dict.); twig-rune, a runic inscription with characters of twig-like form; twig-rush, a tall marsh-plant, Cladium Mariscus, N.O. Cyperaceæ, having very long narrow rigid leaves.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Twig-ait, a river island where osiers grow.
1748. trans. Vegetius’ Distemp. Horses, 173. A close-wrought *Twig-basket must be put upon him.
1695. Lond. Gaz., No. 3085/3. Captain Bonnamy … took a French Ship of 40 Tuns, laden with Burstones and *Twig Bottles.
1863. Hawthorne, Our Old Home (1879), 187. *Twig-brooms, beehives,… things that are commonly sold at a rural fair.
1895. Westm. Gaz., 31 Aug., 3/2. These latter doors are over a foot in thickness, each bearing a lining of twelve inches of *‘twig charcoal.’
1900. B. D. Jackson, Gloss. Bot. Terms, *Twig Climbers, Schenck’s term for certain Brazilian lianes, the young leafy lateral branches being sensitive … in contact with their supports.
1797. J. Curr, Coal Viewer, 8. The basket or *twig corf … cannot be introduced in the southern parts.
1911. Contemp. Rev., Lit. Suppl., June, 9. The chisel, the gouge … the sickle, the *twig-cutter, the scythe.
1806. J. Grahame, Birds Scot., etc. 75. The Raven’s *twig-formed house.
1900. B. D. Jackson, Gloss. Bot. Terms, *Twig-Gall, a morbid growth ascribed to the action of bacteria.
1892. Daily News, 17 Dec., 5/7. The material is *twig-green velvet shot with gold.
1572. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), 156. Strigges of bay Leaves for *twigg heades.
1726. S. Lowe, Lat. Gram., Suppl. 15. Gerrae, *twig-hurdles, gabions.
1882. A. Wilson, in Nature Stud., 37. The so called ‘stick insects,’ or ‘walking twigs,’… the Phasmidæ of the naturalist…. The bodies of these *‘twig insects’ … are represented by mere lines.
1898. Pop. Sc. Monthly, LIII. 762. Curious plants with *twiglike leaves seem … provided against too great loss by transpiration.
1905. Westm. Gaz., 23 June, 4/1. The twig-like attitudes assumed by some caterpillars and other insects.
1657. Billingsly, Brachy-Martyrol., xvi. 55. A third Is taken captive like a *twiglim’d bird.
1868. G. Stephens, Runic Mon., I. 84. *Twig-runes occur on both Old-Northern and Scandinavian … runic monuments.
1836. J. T. Mackay, Flora Hibern., I. 324. Cladium Mariscus, Br. Prickly *Twig-rush.
1848. C. A. Johns, Week at Lizard, 311. Cladium Mariscus, Twig-rush, abounds in the higher parts of the stream.
1900. Blackw. Mag., March, 392/1. Bare and *twig-strewn circles in which the argus-pheasants strut.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. xxix. 96. The eggs of the tailor bird in its *twig-suspended nest.
1829. S. Shaw, Stafford. Potteries, vii. 173. A Lady’s work-basket, which he was led to consider … as *twig or willow ware, and was … surprised, to find it of cane coloured pottery.
1855. Singleton, Virgil, I. 80. Celeus’ furniture, *twig-wrought And mean.
Hence Twigless a., destitute of twigs; Twiglet, -ling, a little twig; Twigsome a., twiggy.
1839. Fraser’s Mag., XX. 345. A birch-tree, entirely boughless, branchless, and twigless.
1849. J. A. Carlyle, trans. Dante’s Inferno, 146. If thou breakest off any twiglet from one of these plants.
1860. Dickens, in All Year Round, No. 50. 558. The twigsome trees by the wayside (which, I suppose, never will grow leafy, for they never did).
1882. Garden, 18 March, 181/2. Slender twiglets of this semi-weeping Spruce.
1907. Westm. Gaz., 19 Oct., 6/1. As pliant twigling to the rigid oak.
