[f. TWITCH v.1 + -ER1.] One who or that which twitches.
1. An instrument for plucking or pinching something. † a. An instrument for clinching hog-rings; cf. hog-ringer (HOG sb.1 13). Obs. † b. = TWITCH sb.1 3 b. Obs. † c. Tweezers for extracting superfluous hairs. Obs. † d. Tweezers or nippers used in cookery for trimming or ornamenting pastry, etc. Obs.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 38. Strong yoke for a hog, with a twicher and rings.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 244/1. Yoke for Swine, Twitchers or Rings. Ibid., 302/2. Horse Twichers, or Bracks … to put on Horses Noses, when they will not stand quietly to be Shooed [etc.]. Ibid., 427/1. A Twitcher, or Twitchers; by them Hair superfluously growing in any part is pulled up by the Roots. Ibid., xxii. (Roxb.), 274/2. Instruments belonging to the Cook. The first is termed a Runner with Twichers. Some Cooks call these Iging [? edging] Irons.
2. One who or that which moves jerkily or spasmodically. rare.
1793. Mary Wollstonecr., Lett. to Imlay, viii. (1879), 19. Where shall I find a word to express the relationship which subsists between us? Shall I ask the little twitcher?
3. That which causes twitching; a severe blow; acute pain. dial.
1828. Craven Gloss., Twitcher, a severe blow.
1877. Sunday Mag., 182. ‘The rheumatis’ had, in his own phrase, ‘caught him on the hop and given him a twitcher.’
