tweet

Noun (1)

tweet (plural tweets)

1. The sound of a bird; any short high-pitched sound or whistle.
   • [Ignatz, dropping Officer Pupp's police whistle into the lake:] The fishes will have lots of fun tweeting tweets on it.1934 April 7, George Herriman, Krazy Kat, Saturday, comic strip, →ISBN, page 104
2. (social media) An entry posted on the microblogging service Twitter.
   • Every few seconds, a tweet appears and vanishes somewhere on the globe.2007 April 22, Jason Pontin, “Twitter takes instant messaging to an extreme”, in International Herald-Tribune
   • For example, as you edit a tweet in Twitter, the number of characters left is updated as you type.2008, Wendy Chisholm, Matthew May, Universal Design for Web Applications
3. (broadly, social media) An entry on any microblogging service.
   • He was watching the media coverage, talking to his lawyers. And we saw that because of his tweets on Truth Social, or his posts on Truth Social.2023 August 3, Kristen Holmes, The Lead with Jake Tapper, CNN

Verb (1)

tweet (third-person singular simple present tweets, present participle tweeting, simple past and past participle tweeted)

1. (intransitive) To produce a short high-pitched sound, similar to that of certain birds.
   • [Ignatz, dropping Officer Pupp's police whistle into the lake:] The fishes will have lots of fun tweeting tweets on it.1934 April 7, George Herriman, Krazy Kat, Saturday, comic strip, →ISBN, page 104
2. (ambitransitive, social media) To post an entry to Twitter.
   • In Saudi Arabia, one of the most conservative societies, one online rebel has rocked the Islamic establishment with tweeted allegations of corruption within the ruling royal family.2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in The Guardian
   • =Mr Trump tweeted: "Big day planned on national security tomorrow. Among many other things, we will build the wall!"2017 January 25, “Donald Trump: 'We will build Mexico border wall'”, in BBC World Service, retrieved 25 Jan 2017
3. (ambitransitive, broadly, social media) To post an entry to any microblogging site.
   • In response to the motion, Trump tweeted on Truth Social2023 September 17, Lou Kettering, “Federal prosecutors in DC 2020 election interference case request order to prohibit Trump making ‘inflammatory’ and ‘misleading’ statements”, in Jurist
   • As Georgetown public policy prof Dan Moynihan tweeted on Bluesky yesterday, the editors of the Times “are not falling for [Rufo’s] game, they are co-producing it.”2024 April 17, Doktor Zoom, “New York Times Joins Chris Rufo In Mean Girls Finger-Snapping At NPR CEO”, in Wonkette

Interjection

1. used to represent the sound of a bird twittering: twit.
   • I've got two loves / And they go tweet (×9) like little birds1977, David Byrne, “Love → Building On Fire”, in Talking Heads: 77, performed by Talking Heads

Proper noun capitalized: Tweet

Tweet (plural Tweets)

1. A surname.

Noun (2) capitalized: Tweet

Tweet (plural Tweets)

1. Alternative letter-case form of tweet (“Twitter post”).
   • Twitter allows users, called Twitterers, to stay constantly connected with friends and family by sending and receiving messages short messages called Tweets.[…]Write a short story in the maximum length of a Tweet.2008 May 31, Jessica Guynn, “Contest inspires few words”, in Los Angeles Times, page C3
   • Julia Thompson will be sending out news Tweets ([…]) and I’ll be keeping you updated with cool calendar Tweets ([…]).2008 August 15, Lyssa Oberkreser, “Tweets have got her all a-Twitter”, in Tallahassee Democrat, 103rd year, number 228, page 3B

Verb (2) capitalized: Tweet

Tweet (third-person singular simple present Tweets, present participle Tweeting, simple past and past participle Tweeted)

1. Alternative letter-case form of tweet (“to post on Twitter”).
   • Girls want pictures with him; guys dress like him for Halloween; more than 500 people “Tweet” his whereabouts on the social networking Web site.2009 April 1, Ofelia Casillas, “All a-Twitter over ‘Tamale Guy’”, in Chicago Tribune, section 4, page 1, column 2
   • His comment galvanized fiscally conservative Democrats to support the president’s bill and heightened the sense of despondency among those Republican congressmen and senators who BBMed and Tweeted on their BlackBerries throughout the speech.2009 September 11, Clay A. Dumas, “So You Think You Can Shout”, in The Harvard Crimson, archived from the original on 05 Aug 2013