Obs. exc. dial. Forms: 1 twisla, twisel-; 4 twisil, 6 twisel, twissell, 9 twissel, (twistle, twizzle). [OE. twisla = OHG. zwisila (MHG. zwisel, G. zwiesel), f. twi- TWI-; cf. also ON. kvísl.]
1. A point or part at which anything divides into branches; a fork. Now dial.
931. Chart. Æðelstan, 21 June, in Birch, Cart. Sax., II. 360. Of þam mere on þan lace þær þa brocas twisliað; þanne of ðæm twislan on mær beorh.
1586. J. Hooker, Hist. Irel., in Holinshed, II. 43/1. The same were so soft, that with the weight of their bodies they sunke downe vp to the hard knees or twisels.
1847–78. Halliwell, Twissel, Twistle, that part of a tree where the branches divide from the stock. West.
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., 784. In the twizzle of that there pollard.
† 2. A double twig or shoot. Obs. rare.
1567. Turberv., Poems, ‘The Lover wisheth,’ 34. As from a tree we sundrie times espie A twissell grow by Natures subtile might, And being two … For one are tane.
† 3. attrib. or as adj. Double, twofold (in comb.).
c. 1000. Ælfric’s Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 108/15. Scinodens, twiseltoðe.
1382. Wyclif, Prov. viii. 13. The mouth of the twisil tunge I wlate. Ibid., Ecclus. v. 16. Be thou not clepid a twisil tunge, or a priue bacbiter. Ibid., vi. 1. Eche synnere enuyous and twisil tungid.
