tweeners

Noun

tweener (plural tweeners)

1. (informal) A tweenager.
   • But a half-dozen other movies geared toward the teenage and 'tween girl market – 'tweeners are girls from 8 to 12 years old – have failed to make more than a slight dent at the box office.2004 April 26, Sharon Waxman, “Cracks in Hollywood's Glass-Slipper Genre”, in The New York Times

   Synonyms:

   tween, preteen

2. (informal) A person or thing that is between two categories, classes or age groups.
   • I assigned one of my groups of heart patients the task of sorting a hundred art reproductions into three piles: beautiful, in between, and ugly. The five men sat down to begin work. The first few paintings were easily classified and group decision was rapid. As they progressed, however, one of the...1987, Paul Pearsall, Superimmunity: Master Your Emotions & Improve Your Personal Health, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Book Company, →ISBN, page 53
   1. (informal) A person who plays at two positions, especially if not good enough at either to be restricted to it.
      • Crowder was 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, so those scouts naturally called him a tweener — a power forward in a wing player’s body. The Celtics forward admits to even going along with the stereotype.2015 June 22, Mark Murphy, “NBA Draft: Celtics” Jae Crowder heads up NBA trend for ex-tweeners”, in Boston Herald
   2. (informal) A computing device that is smaller than a traditional laptop, but larger than a PDA.
      • Trailing a little behind that in hype are the ’tweeners: the larger-format Windows CE Palm Pro portables. They’re not quite notebooks or subnotebooks, but they’re bigger than handhelds.1999 January 4, Cathy Gagne, “Flashback ’98 Tech review: Handheld Dandies”, in Computerworld, volume 33, number 1, Framingham, Mass.: Computerworld, Inc., →ISSN, page 106
   3. (informal) A boxer in various newcomer weight classes whose names often contain super, light or junior.
      • Undoubtedly, his record versus welterweights (147 pounds) is better than against full-blown middleweights (160 pounds). Being a tweener, Graziano probably would have campaigned as a junior middleweight (154 pounds) if he fought today.2023, Rod Honecker, Brick City Grudge Match: Tony Zale and Rocky Graziano Battle in Newark, 1948, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 146
   4. (informal, slang) A professional wrestler who is neutral or morally ambiguous; neither a face nor a heel, or showing no favoritism to either allegiance.
      • There are old-school wrestlers, submission wrestlers, hardcore wrestlers, hillbilly wrestlers, masked Mexican lucha libre wrestlers, shoot wrestlers, and wrestlers who just talk a lot and never actually wrestle. There are babyfaces (good guys), heels (bad guys), ’tweeners, and crossovers.2006, Thomas Hackett, Slaphappy: Pride, Prejudice, and Professional Wrestling, New York, NY: HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 21

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