subs. (old).—1. The fourchure, the crutch.
1586. W. HARRISON, The Description of England, v. A man of common heigth might easilie go vnder his TWIST, without stooping, a stature incredible.
1609. HEYWOOD, Troia Britanica.
| Typhon makes play, Jhove catcht him by the TWIST, | |
| Heaves him aloft. |
2. (colloquial).—A bent, turn, cast: a variation from what is usually normal and proper. Thus A TWISTED VISION = a wrong or ‘cussed’ way of looking at things; A TWISTED (= a lying) TONGUE: whence TWISTER = a falsehood or gross exaggeration; TWISTED (= brogueish) SPEECH, etc. Also TWISTY (or TWISTICAL) = awkward, CROOKED (q.v.), FUNNY (q.v.); TWISTABLE = easily influenced.
d. 1818. D. HUMPHREYS, The Yankee in England. He may be straight-going, farzino, manwards; but, in his dealings with t’other sex, he is a leetle TWISTICAL, according to their tell. I wouldn’t make a town talk of it.
1821. LAMB, The Essays of Elia, ‘Mackery End, in Hertfordshire.’ Heads with some diverting TWIST in them.
1824. R. B. PEAKE, Americans Abroad, i. 1. Come … you are but an underlin’, tho’ you are so uppish and TWISTICAL.
1862. New York Tribune, 28 March. This amendment is TWISTABLE into an advice, an impertinent advice to a foreign nation.
1881. HUXLEY, Science and Culture. An exclusively scientific training will bring about a mental TWIST as surely as an exclusively literary training.
1887. The Field, 26 Nov. The fox made his straight point, though by devious and TWISTY courses.
d. 1891. J. R. LOWELL, Fitz Adam’s Story.
| You might have called him with his humorous TWIST, | |
| A kind of human entomologist. |
3. (colloquial).—An appetite; hence TO TWIST IT DOWN (or LUSTILY) = ‘to feed like a Farmer’ (B. E.), ‘to eat heartily’ (GROSE). Fr. crampe au pylore.
4. (old).—(a) A mixture of tea and coffee (B. E. and GROSE); also (b) brandy, beer, and eggs (GROSE); and (c) brandy and gin.
1849–50. THACKERAY, Pendennis, xxxix. When he went to the Back Kitchen that night … the gin TWIST and devilled turkey had no charms for him.
5. (Winchester).—A stick spirally marked by a creeper having grown round it: also TWISTER.
Verb. (old).—To hang: see LADDER (GROSE). Hence TWISTED = hanged.
1823. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue [EGAN], s.v. NOSE. His pall NOSED, and he was TWISTED for a crack.
6. (cricket).—A turn given to the wrist in delivery, so that the ball breaks from the straight. Whence TWISTER = a ball so delivered by the bowler (also, at billiards, a ball that screws or spins along with a twist). Hence (figuratively) = anything that puzzles or staggers.
1857. T. HUGHES, Tom Brown’s School-days, ii. 8. The cover-point hitter, that cunning man, goes on to bowl slow TWISTERS.
1889. The Popular Science Monthly, Feb., 547. He has learned the trick of playing with a straight bat the examiner’s most artful TWISTERS.
1898. MARSHALL, Pomes, 61. That blow was a TWISTER.
1903. Punch’s Almanack, 14. 1.
| Saunders doth next (at TWISTERS who so skilled?) slay | |
| (‘Bowl’ wouldn’t rhyme, unfortunately) Tyldesley. |
A TWIST ON THE SHORTS, phr. (American Stock Exchange).—A Wall Street phrase, used where the SHORTS (q.v.) have undersold heavily, and the market has been I artificially raised, compelling them to settle at ruinous rates (MEDBURY).
TO TWIST (or WIND) ROUND ONE’S FINGER, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To control or influence completely, to make submissive: usually of women.
See TAIL.
