a. (sb.) [f. TWIST sb.1 or v. + -Y.] Full of twists or turns; characterized by twisting, or winding; also fig. dishonest, not straightforward. (Cf. twistical.)
1857. W. Arnot, Lett., in Life, vi. (1877), 330. It [a valley] was narrow and hilly and woody and beautiful and twisty.
1869. E. W. Benson, in Life (1900), I. ix. 309. Neither olive nor vine, only the poor twisty bramble.
1894. Blackmore, Perlycross, xxxviii. I just chucked ’un into a pool of watter, for to kape ’un out o’ sight of twisty volk.
1905. Daily Chron., 21 July, 4/7. A somewhat twisty redistribution of seats.
1912. D. Crawford, Thinking Black, i. 7. You get your initial surprise that this Africa for thousands of twisty miles ahead is a land wholly innocent of roads.
b. sb. The fruit of the screw-tree, Helicteres Isora, of Southern India; see quot.
1866. Treas. Bot., 576/1. H[elicteres] Isora is a native of Southern India, where its singular twisted screw-like fruit, about two inches in length, is called ‘twisted stick,’ ‘twisted born,’ or ‘twisty,’ and … is supposed to be a sovereign remedy against colic or twistings of the bowels.
Hence Twistiness, the condition or quality of being twisty; Twistiways, Twistiwise advbs., in a twisty manner. So Twisty-wisty a. nonce-wd.
1844. Liverpool Mercury, 27 Dec., 8/4. The true type of the *twistiness of his reasoning faculties, so thoroughly soaped that it is next to impossible to get a firm hold of him.
1904. Daily News, 16 July, 4/2. As Miss Morison went upstream her progress was very tardy, a fact partly owing to the curious twistiness of the river.
1903. Speaker, 9 May, 135/1. To drift *twistiways on the variant currents of men’s thoughts.
1898. Plainfield (N.J.) Courier-News, 7 Oct. 6/1. The parents are just tired out, and the strongest of them are carrying the babies all *twistywise.
1907. Westm. Gaz., 13 Sept., 2/1. Pace it [a ‘magic’ ring] three times round, ‘twisty-wise,’ with face against the sun.
1892. Kipling, Barrack-r. Ballads, 33. A single man gets bottled on them *twisty-wisty stairs.
