[f. TWITCH v.1 + -ING1.] The action of the verb TWITCH; jerking, plucking; nipping; convulsive or spasmodic movement. Also attrib.
1607. Markham, Caval., I. xviii. (1617), 75. Let them which haue hold vpon the halter, with twitchings and strainings torment him.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 37. Almost all Purgers have a kind of Twitching and vellication besides the griping which commeth of winde.
1768. Tucker, Lt. Nat., I. xxxiii. (1834), I. 241. A man, who should find a troublesome twitching in his muscles, would do very wrong to destroy the tone of them.
1789. Trans. Soc. Arts, VII. 189. Model of a machine for twitching of wool.
1799. Med. Jrnl., I. 480. Starting tremors, convulsive twitchings are frequent.
1831. Carlyle, in Froude, Life (1882), II. 189. An occasional twitching up of the corners of the upper lip, and point of the nose.
1872. M. Creighton, Hist. Ess., ii. (1902), 101. His suffering was known only by … the twitching of his lips.
1881. Trans. Obstet. Soc. Lond., XXII. 20. The twitching attacks do not recur periodically and their duration is variable.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 589. The patient complains of … twitching of the extremities.
† b. concr. See quot. Obs. rare.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 300/1. Twitchings, the ends of Nails cut off, as of Horse-shooe Nails.
Twitching vbl. sb.2: see TWITCH v.3
