Word.ws English Dictionary

twist

/twɪst/

twist noun: a twisting force. Also the ellipsis of hair twist.

Noun

twist (countable and uncountable, plural twists)

  1. A twisting force.
  2. Anything twisted, or the act of twisting.
    • Peter was always proud afterwards when he remembered that, with the Bargee's furious fingers tightening on his ear, the Bargee's crimson countenance close to his own, the Bargee's hot breath on his neck, he had the courage to speak the truth.
      "I wasn't catching fish," said Peter.
      "That's not your...1906, Edith Nesbit, chapter 8, in The Railway Children
    • Not the least turn or twist in the fibres of any one animal which does not render them more proper for that particular animal's way of life than any other cast or texture.1711 July 28 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “TUESDAY, July 18, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 120; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New...
  3. The form given in twisting.
    • Habakkuk brought him a ſmooth, ſtrong, tough Rope, made of many a ply of vvholeſome Scandinavian Hemp, compactly tvviſted together, vvith a Nooſe that ſlip'd as glib as a Bird-catcher's Gin. Jack ſhrunk and grevv pale at firſt ſight of it, he handled it, meaſur'd it, ſtretch'd it, fix'd it againſt...1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “How Jack Hang’d Himself Up by the Perswasion of His Friends, who Broke Their Word, and Left His Neck in the Noose”, in An Appendix to John Bull...
  4. The degree of stress or strain when twisted.
  5. A type of thread made from two filaments twisted together.
    • the thrid / By griesly Lachesis was spun with paine, / That cruell Atropos eftsoones vndid, / With cursed knife cutting the twist in twaine […]1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
    • VVhen thou our true Sampſon avvakeſt, and foundſt thy ſelfe tyed vvith theſe Philiſtian coards, and rouſedſt up, and brakeſt thoſe hard and ſtrong tvviſts vvith a ſuddaine povver, no marvell if the roome ſhooke under thee.1634, Jos: Exon. [i.e., Joseph Hall], “[The Residve of the Contemplations […].] The Resurrection.”, in The Contemplations upon the History of the New Testament, Now Complete: […], 2nd tome, London...
  6. A sliver of lemon peel added to a cocktail, etc.
    • Bunny sat on the only remaining stool at the leather-padded oval bar in the Iron Lounge. It was happy hour, two drinks for the price of one. She decided on a martini with a twist, and while the bartender was preparing her drink, she scanned the faces looking at the bar.2005, Theodore J. Albasini, The Progeny
  7. A sudden bend (or short series of bends) in a road, path, etc.
    • But here a twist in the stream brought us out from the bushes1899, Edith Nesbit, The Wouldbegoods
    • I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big...1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
  8. A distortion to the meaning of a passage or word.
  9. An unexpected turn in a story, tale, etc.
    • I'm all agog at the new twist to the royal scandal.
    • Though set in Los Angeles, the film has a familiar, television look and feel - two handsome partners, cops, criminals, fast cars and a marginal romance. The twist in the buddy-car-chase formula is that here the good guys tend to blur into the bad.1987 October 23, Caryn James, “Movie Review: No Man's Land (1987)”, in New York Times
  10. (preceded by definite article) A modern dance popular in Western culture in the late 1950s and 1960s, based on rotating the hips repeatedly from side to side. See Twist (dance) on Wikipedia for more details.
    • Come on, baby, let's do the twist
      Take me by my little hand and go like this1958, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, “The Twist”
    • Out from his coffin, Drac's voice did ring
      Seems he was troubled by just one thing
      Opened the lid and shook his fist
      And said, "Whatever happened to my Transylvania twist?"
      It's now the Mash
      It's now the Monster Mash.1962, “Monster Mash”, Bobby "Boris" Pickett and Lenny Capizzi (lyrics), performed by Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers
  11. A rotation of the body when diving.
  12. A sprain, especially to the ankle.
Show 9 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (obsolete) A twig.
    • No twiſt, no twig, no bough nor branch […]1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The Thirteenth Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […]...
  2. (slang) A girl, a woman.
    • James and Ruby danced over beside us. ‘Did you tell her?’ he asked, looking at me. I nodded.
      ‘Wait a minute,’ Gloria said, as they started to dance away. ‘What’s the big idea of talking behind my back?’
      ‘Tell that twist to lay off me,’ James said, still speaking directly to me.1935, Horace McCoy, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, Serpent’s Tail, published 2011, →ISBN, page 19
    • (Dane, speaking about a woman character) "I'll see where the twist flops"1990, Miller's Crossing, 01:08:20
  3. A roll or baton of baked dough or pastry in a twisted shape.
  4. A small roll of tobacco.
    • Uncle Charles smoked such black twist that at last his nephew suggested to him to enjoy his morning smoke in a little outhouse at the end of the garden.1916, James Joyce, chapter II, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC
    • We spent a lot of time up on the staging of the great furnaces, trying to pick up the tricks of the trade from the taciturn furnacemen who sat around placidly smoking, or chewing twist, and occasionally throwing in more pig iron to the molten white-hot metal.1945 January and February, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—III”, in Railway Magazine, page 14
  5. A material for gun barrels, consisting of iron and steel twisted and welded together.
    • Damascus twist
  6. The spiral course of the rifling of a gun barrel or a cannon.
  7. (obsolete, slang) A beverage made of brandy and gin.
  8. A strong individual tendency or bent; inclination.
    • a twist toward fanaticism
  9. (archaic, slang) An appetite for food.
    • Hope you’ve brought good appetites with you, gentlemen. You, Doolan, I know ave, for you’ve always ad a deuce of a twist.1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XXXV, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published...
    • He [the yearling bull] had a good handsome male head, and he had a capital twist. He had a spring in his rib, and was something over seven feet in girth. He was well covered, and had all the recommendations of quality, symmetry, and size.1861, The Farmer's Magazine, page 40

Verb

twist (third-person singular simple present twists, present participle twisting, simple past and past participle twisted)

  1. To turn the ends of something, usually thread, rope etc., in opposite directions, often using force.
    Synonyms:
    torque, convolute
  2. To join together by twining one part around another.
    • "Well, one day I went up in a balloon and the ropes got twisted, so that I couldn't come down again. It went way up above the clouds, so far that a current of air struck it and carried it many, many miles away. For a day and a night I traveled through the air, and on the morning of the second day I...1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, chapter 15, in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co., →OCLC
  3. To contort; to writhe; to complicate; to crook spirally; to convolve.
    • June 8, 1714, Alexander Pope, letter to Jonathan Swift
      twisting it into a serpentine form.
  4. To wreathe; to wind; to encircle; to unite by intertexture of parts.
    • longing to twist bays with that ivy1645, Edmund Waller, To my Lord of Falkland
    • There are pillars of smoke twisted about wreaths of flame.1844, Robert Chambers, “Dr Thomas Burnet”, in Cyclopædia of English Literature
  5. (reflexive) To wind into; to insinuate.
    • Avarice twists itself into all human concerns.
  6. To turn a knob etc.
  7. To distort or change the truth or meaning of words when repeating.
    • Say I could succeed at the Bar, and achieve a fortune by bullying witnesses and twisting evidence; is that a fame which would satisfy my longings, or a calling in which my life would be well spent?1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    wrest
  8. To form a twist (in any of the above noun meanings).
  9. To injure (a body part) by bending it in the wrong direction.
    • Then Romany went down, then we fell together, and the chaps separated us. I got another knock-down blow in, and was beginning to enjoy the novelty of it, when Romany staggered and limped.
      ‘I’ve done,’ he said. ‘I’ve twisted my ankle.’ He’d caught his heel against a tuft of grass.1901, Henry Lawson, Joe Wilson's Courtship
    • Oh, you are a devil. You can twist the heart in a girl as easy as some could twist her arms to hurt her. Mrs Pearce warned me. Time and again she has wanted to leave you; and you always got round her at the last minute. And you dont care a bit for her. And you dont care a bit for me.1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act V, page 185
  10. (intransitive) To wind; to follow a bendy or wavy course; to have many bends.
    • I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big...1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
    • My coming to New York had been a mistake; for whereas I had looked for poignant wonder and inspiration in the teeming labyrinths of ancient streets that twist endlessly from forgotten courts and squares and waterfronts to courts and squares and waterfronts equally forgotten, and in the Cyclopean...1926, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, He
  11. (transitive) To cause to rotate.
    • The tide seized us and swept us along, and in the races where this happened there were sucking whirlpools, strong enough to twist us round.1911, John Masefield, chapter 8, in Jim Davis
  12. (intransitive) To dance the twist (a type of dance characterised by twisting one's hips).
    • Twist it in the alley
      With long tall Sally
      Twistin' with Lucy
      Doin' the watusi.1962, “Land of a Thousand Dances”, Chris Kenner (lyrics), performed by Chris Kenner
  13. (transitive) To coax.
    • "On the three-thousand-dollar reward John Bain is offerin' for the return of his sister," said Ace. "Now listen--I know a certain big Chinee had her kidnapped outa her 'rickshaw out at the edge of the city one evenin'. He's been keepin' her prisoner in his house, waitin' a chance to send her...1932, Robert E. Howard, Dark Shanghai
  14. In the game of blackjack (pontoon or twenty-one), to be dealt another card.
    Antonyms:
    stay, stick

Proper noun capitalized: Twist

Twist

  1. A surname.

Also used as

twist is also the ellipsis of hair twist.

twist meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Telugu

twist in Hindi

twisting force
मोड़ moṛ
anything twisted, or the act of twisting
मोड़ moṛ, मरोड़ maroṛ
form
मोड़ moṛ
to turn the ends in opposite directions
मोड़ना moṛnā, मरोड़ना maroṛnā

twist in Tamil

to turn the ends in opposite directions
திருகு tiruku

twist in Marathi

ट्विस्ट

twist in Telugu

ట్విస్ట్
More languagesFewer languages
twist in Malayalam
ട്വിസ്റ്റ്, ട്വിസ്റ്റ് ചെയ്യുക
twist in Kannada
ಟ್ವಿಸ್ಟ್
twist in Punjabi
ਟਵਿਸਟ, ਟਵਿਸਟ ਕਰੋ
twist in Gujarati
ટ્વિસ્ટ, ટ્વિસ્ટ કરો
twist in Odia
ଟ୍ବିଷ୍ଟ କରନ୍ତୁ, ଟ୍ବିଷ୍ଟ, ଟ୍ବିଷ୍ଟ୍
twist in Nepali
ट्विस्ट, ट्विस्ट गर्नुहोस्
twist in Tagalog
balikukuin, magbalikuko, ibalikuko
twist in Arabic
لَوَى lawā, بَرَمَ barama
twist in Persian
تافتن tâftan
twist in Thai
บิด bìt
twist in Vietnamese
vặn, xoắn

Examples of twist in a sentence

  • I was one morning walking arm in arm with him in St James's Park, his dress then being […] waistcoat and breeches of the same blue satin, trimmed with silver twist à la hussarde, and ermine edges.1808–1810, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, page 140
  • It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
  • She taught him to do the twist, having learned it herself from an Alvin Ailey dancer at Jacob's Pillow.1997 April 22, Jennifer Dunning, “Surviving It All, Dismissals, Tours and Balanchine”, in New York Times:
  • "Well, one day I went up in a balloon and the ropes got twisted, so that I couldn't come down again.1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, chapter 15, in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co....

All 40 example sentences with twist

Synonyms of twist

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of twist

Forms of twist

Noun
pluraltwists
Verb
third-person singular presenttwists
present participletwisting
past participletwisted
pasttwisted

Past tense of twist: twisted

Plural of twist: twists

Origin of twist

PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English twist, from Old English *twist, in compounds (e.g. mæsttwist (“a rope; stay”), candeltwist (“a wick”)), from Proto-Germanic *twistaz, a derivative of *twi- (“two-”) (compare also twine, between, betwixt). Related to Saterland Frisian Twist (“discord”), Dutch twist (“twist; strife; discord”), German Low German Twist (“strife; discord”), German Zwist (“turmoil; strife; discord”), Swedish tvist (“quarrel; dispute”), Icelandic tvistur (“deuce”). The verb is from Middle English twisten. Compare Dutch twisten, Danish tviste (“to dispute”), Swedish tvista (“to argue; dispute”).

Words formed from twist

Phrases with twist

5 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with twist

43 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about twist

What does twist mean?
Twist means a twisting force.
What is twist in Hindi?
Twist in Hindi is मोड़ (moṛ), मरोड़ (maroṛ), मोड़ना (moṛnā). See Twist meaning in Hindi.
How do you use twist in a sentence?
I was one morning walking arm in arm with him in St James's Park, his dress then being […] waistcoat and breeches of the same blue satin, trimmed with silver twist à la hussarde, and ermine edges.
What part of speech is twist?
Twist can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce twist?
Twist is pronounced /twɪst/.
What is the plural of twist?
The plural of twist is twists.

Words near twist in the dictionary

  1. Twiss
  2. twissel
  3. twissell
  4. twissels
  5. Twisses
  6. twist
  7. twist and turn
  8. twist around one's little finger
  9. twist drill
  10. twist drills
  11. twist in the wind

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: twist (page history and authors); Twist (page history and authors); twist (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); twist (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); twist (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); twist (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); twist (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); twist (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); twist (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); twist (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-twist.ogg.

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