twists

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
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
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

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