[f. TWIN a. and sb.]
1. intr. To bring forth two children or young at a birth; to bear twins.
1573. [see TWINNING vbl. sb.2 1].
1587. Harrison, England, III. I. in Holinshed, I. 219/2. Kine … now and then twin.
1614. C. Brooke, Eglogues (1772), 99. Whiles thy rams do tup, thy ewes do twyn.
1659. Heylin, Examen Hist., I. 108. The world had … never increased to such vast multitudes in so short a time, if Eve had not twinned at least at every birth.
1817. Keatinge, Trav., II. 187. The ewes of this country rarely twin.
1874. T. Hardy, Madding Crowd, xv. (1889), 111. Two more ewes have twinned.
b. trans. To conceive or bring forth as twins, or as a twin with another.
1607. [see TWINNED ppl. a. 1].
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., IX. (1626), 176. From each seuer’d head Each of her hundred necks two fiercer bred: More strong by twinning heires.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), IV. 138. I have … a sister, twinned with me in the womb.
c. intr. in passive sense: To be born at the same birth with; to be the twin brother or sister of another. ? Obs.
1604. Shaks., Oth., II. iii. 212. Though he had twinn’d with me, both at a birth.
1701. Watts, Horæ Lyr., Indian Philos., ix. Might I but see That gentle nymph that twinn’d with me.
1790. Bystander, 308. If a brother … who had twinned with him should dare [etc.].
2. trans. To couple, join, unite, combine (two things or persons) closely or intimately. lit. and fig.
c. 1394. P. Pl. Crede, 496. Here y touche þis two, twynnen hem I þenke.
1611. Bible, Exod. xxvi. 24. They shall be coupled [marg. twinned] together beneath.
1616. B. Jonson, Masque Ld. Haddington, Wks. 941. That twins their hearts; and doth, of two, make one.
1667. Milton, P. L., XII. 85. True Libertie … alwayes with right Reason dwells Twinn’d, and from her hath no dividual being.
1725. W. Halfpenny, Sound Building, 22. To form a Centre so, that the Mason … shall twin their Arches thereon.
1847. Tennyson, Princ., I. 56. Still we moved Together, twinn’d as horse’s ear and eye.
b. intr. To be coupled; to join, combine, unite; to be parallel or equal, to agree. rare.
1621. [see TWINNING ppl. a.].
1638. G. Sandys, Paraphr. Div. Poems, Job xxxvii. 48. O how inscrutable! his equitie Twins with his Power.
1652. Benlowes, Theoph., X. lxxvi. Wealth twins with fear.
c. Cryst. (trans.) To unite (two crystals) according to some definite law so as to form a twin crystal (see TWIN sb. 3 b). Only in passive, and in vbl. sb. (TWINNING vbl. sb.2 2).
1845. [see TWIN sb. 3 b].
1883. Encycl. Brit., XVI. 363/2. Occasionally a simple form is twinned with a more complex one, as in chabasite.
1895. Story-Maskelyne, Crystallogr., vii. § 193. Crystals twinned on an octahedron-face. Ibid., § 194. Two crystals twinned round an axis.
3. trans. To be, or furnish, a ‘twin’ or counterpart to; to match, parallel.
1605. 1st Pt. Ieronimo, II. ii. 14. A suit iust of Andreas cullers, Proportiond in all parts—nay, twins his own.
1869. Good Words, 1 March, 176. Thou hast no mate To … twin those matchless heights.
1873. Lowell, Graves Eng. Soldiers Concord, 32. O’erhead the balanced hen-hawk slides, Twinned in the river’s heaven below.
4. Agric. To break up or clear (land) with a ‘twin’ (TWIN sb. 3 c). local.
1841. Hartshorne, Salopia Antiq., Gloss., Twinning to tak away the scutch.
1859. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XX. I. 217. Some of the turnip-soil, broken up and then ‘twinned.’
