Now dial. [Of obscure origin; perh. merely an imitative word of the same type as TWICK, tweag TWEAK, and TUG.]
† 1. trans. See quot. Obs. slang.
1725. New Cant. Dict., To Twig, to disingage, to sunder, to snap, to break off. To twig the Darbies; To knock off the Irons.
2. To pull, pluck, twitch.
1755. J. Shebbeare, Lydia (1769), II. 49. Write,… or Frank shall twig your nose from your face.
1790. D. Morison, Poems, 78. Let rantin billys twig the string, An’ for the tither mutchkin ring.
1864. Reader, 23 Jan., 105. To stretch strings on pegs and to twig them with thumb or with plectrum was one of the earliest of human amusements.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Work-bk., Twig, to, to pull upon a bowline.
Hence Twigging ppl. a.
1864. Reader, 23 Jan., 105. The genus stringed-instrument consists of three species, which may be defined, to use the vernacular, as the twigging, the hammering, and the scraping.
