Word.ws English Dictionary

Twinkie defence

Twinkie defence noun: a legal defense of diminished responsibility based on a claim that irregular behavior is caused by a poor diet or junk food.

Noun

Twinkie defence (plural Twinkie defences)

  1. (US, colloquial) A legal defense of diminished responsibility based on a claim that irregular behavior is caused by a poor diet or junk food.
  2. (broadly) Any spurious legal defense.

Forms of Twinkie defence

pluralTwinkie defences
alternative formTwinkie defense

Origin of Twinkie defence

From the 1979 trial of defendant Dan White for the murders of San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk and mayor George Moscone. White's defense was that he suffered diminished capacity as a result of his depression; his change in diet from healthy food to Twinkies and other sugary food was said to be a symptom of this depression.

Questions about Twinkie defence

What does Twinkie defence mean?
Twinkie defence means a legal defense of diminished responsibility based on a claim that irregular behavior is caused by a poor diet or junk food.
What part of speech is Twinkie defence?
Twinkie defence is a noun.
What is the plural of Twinkie defence?
The plural of Twinkie defence is Twinkie defences.

Words near Twinkie defence in the dictionary

  1. twinked
  2. twinkhon
  3. twinkhons
  4. twinkhood
  5. twinkie
  6. Twinkie defence
  7. Twinkie defences
  8. twinkier
  9. twinkies
  10. twinkiest
  11. twinkification

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Twinkie defence (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Twinkie defence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/twinkie_defence. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.