[f. TWIST v. + -ER1.] One who or that which twists.
† 1. One who prunes or clips trees. Obs. rare–0.
1483. Cath. Angl., 399/2. A Twyster of trees, defrondator.
2. A girder. Cf. TWIST sb.1 3 b.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Twister … 2, a girder.
3. One who (or that which) spins thread, cord, or the like; spec. one whose occupation is to twist together the ends of the yarns of the new warp to those of that already woven. Also twister-in.
1579. J. Stubbes, Gaping Gulf, B iv b. Which strong cord … the Lorde … turned to the strangling of the twisters thereof.
1599. T. M[oufet], Silkwormes, 69. How many winders liue, How many twisters eke, and weauers thriue Vppon this trade?
1611. Cotgr., Retordeur, a twister, twiner.
1723. Lond. Gaz., No. 6172/8. Samuel Brooke…, Twister. Ibid. Nicholas Gudgeon…, Silver-Twister.
1799. Hull Advertiser, 2 March, 4/4. The Man of the People … at a ropemaker’s shop … besought … his interest … when the twister replied [etc.].
1815. G. Beattie, John o’ Arnha’ (1826), 36. Elspet, Mausie, fatal sisters, Of the thread of life the twisters.
1878. A. Barlow, Hist. & Princ. Weaving, xxx. 311. The ‘twister-in’ has no difficulty in finding the proper threads to twist together.
1895. Daily News, 3 July, 7/5. The threatened lock-out … at Burnley has been averted by the settlement of the twisters’ dispule.
b. A mechanical device for spinning yarns, etc.; spec. a throw-crook (dial.).
a. 1703. Wallis, in J. Greenwood, Eng. Gram. (1711), 283. He [a rope-maker], twerling his twister, makes a twist of the twine.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Twister, a reel used in twisting yarns or threads.
1890. Gloucester. Gloss., Twister, an implement used for twisting straw ropes for thatching, resembling a brace and bit, except that the bit has a hooked end.
1903. Dundee Advertiser, 25 July, 9. This machine … does more work in a given time than any other type of twister.
c. A wheel, tourniquet, or other device by which torsional force is applied.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 2075. The Wringing-Machine … for small laundries. The articles to be wrung, when large, are taken out of the washing-tub, and, being passed over the pin,… the two ends are put through the hole of the twister,… which is turned round by the spokes.
1892. Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, 24 May. One of the highwaymen … confessed his guilt after being tortured with ‘twisters’ and hot coals.
4. One who or that which turns about, turns from side to side, rotates, etc. † a. A twisting or twining shoot. Obs. rare.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 43. Fill a bag … of leaves and twisters of vine.
b. One who turns this way and that; fig. one who shuffles or prevaricates.
1834. Beckford, Italy, etc., II. xvi. 359. The ambassador is … no commonplace twister and turner in the paths of diplomacy.
1897. Blackmore, in Blackw. Mag., July, 61/2. I have handled a good many twisters and skippers in the way of savages.
c. Cricket. A delivery in which the ball twists or ‘breaks’; a break; transf. in Tennis and other ball-games, a ‘screw.’
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, II. vi. To come out … to Tom’s wicket, and bowl slow twisters to him.
1862. Calverley, Verses & Tr. ‘Hic vir, hic est,’ viii. I have stood serene … While the Buttress of the period Bowled me his peculiar twisters.
1884. Marshall, Tennis Cuts, 202. T was the Twister, that settled the rest.
d. U.S. In the Mississippi region: A whirling wind-storm; a cyclone, tornado.
1897. Strand Mag., Sept., 266/1. Kansas … is a favourite spot of the ‘twisters’ as the Westerns playfully term their windy enemy (the tornado).
1903. W. M. Davis, Elem. Phys. Geog., ii. 67. Violent local storms … are often called cyclones, or prairie twisters, in the Mississippi valley, but the name tornado is to be preferred.
e. A handle operated by twisting or rotating it.
1903. F. T. Bidlake, in Cycl. Tour. Cl. Gaz., Aug., 359/2. The … machine with the compound brake application, i. e., the combination of the lever and the twister.
5. One who curves, bends, or rolls something.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., III. 158. The leaves are … placed over charcoal fires…. The twisters roll them over with their hands until twisted.
6. That which (or one who) wrings or causes contortion; esp. fig. something that confounds, non-plusses, or ‘doubles up,’ a ‘staggerer’ (slang)
1873. Routledge’s Yng. Gentl. Mag., May, 358/1. ‘Twister,’ broke in the petty officer: ‘I tell you it’s as true as gospel.’
1879. Black, Macleod of D., xl. Well, you have had a twister; but you’ll come through it.
1884. Clark Russell, Jack’s Courtship, xvi. She had a letter from you this morning—a regular twister.
1893. Daily Tel., May, 5/1. This was evidently a twister for the beggar-boy.
7. A voracious feeder. slang. ? Obs.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, V. Prol. A vj b. What Swillers, what Twisters will there be!
