Sc. [Later form of TWIN v.1, prob. by misunderstanding of ambiguous spellings under the influence of TWINE v.1] intr. and trans. To separate, part, etc.; = TWIN v.1 in various uses.
It is doubtful whether an inf. twyne is to be assumed for the ME. examples of the pa. t. twynde cited below; in other cases the form is shown by rhymes or other evidence to be a mere variant of TWIN v.1 The spelling twin’d is ambiguous, and may represent either twined or twinned.
[c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 6305. In partyes he it twynde, Ȝit sulde he … within a while Aboute his nek it fynde.
a. 1500. New Nut-brown Maid, 303, in Hazlitt, E. P. P., III. 13. And I am twynde Out of his mynde, Ryght as a banysshed man.]
1621. [see quot. 1567 s.v. TWIN v.1 2 a].
1728. Ramsay, Robt., Richy, & Sandy, 57. Twin’d of its nourishment it lifeless lay.
1795. Burns, Destr. Woods Drumlanrig, v. What ruefu’ chance Has twin’d ye o’ your stately trees?
a. 1800[?]. Bob Norice, vi., in Child, Ballads (1886), II. 267/2. To twyne him o his wife.
1886. Stevenson, Kidnapped, xviii. ‘You and me must twine,’ I said…. ‘I will hardly twine from ye, David, without some kind of reason for the same,’ said Alan.
1894. R. Reid, in Poets of Dumfriesshire, x. (1910), 303. Cauld maun his heart be, twined o’ its joys.
1895. Crockett, Men of Moss-Hags, 31. What cause is guid that twines a woman frae her ain man?
