Twitch
Pronunciation
- IPA: /twɪt͡ʃ/
- Rhymes: -ɪtʃ
Origin 1
From Middle English twicchen; akin to Old English twiccian and Old High German gizwickan.
Full definition of twitch
Noun
twitch
(plural twitches)- A brief, small (sometimes involuntary) movement out of place and then back again; a spasm.I saw a little twitch in the man's face, and knew he was lying.
- (informal) Action of spotting or seeking out a bird, especially a rare one.
- (farriery) A stick with a hole in one end through which passes a loop, which can be drawn tightly over the upper lip or an ear of a horse and twisted to keep the animal quiet during minor surgery.
Derived terms
Verb
- (intransitive) To perform a twitch; spasm.
- unknown date — http://www.mindspring.com/~randyhoward/new_page_6.htm"Why is it that you twitch whenever I say Faith?"
- 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen RabbitTheir feet padded softly on the ground, and they crept quite close to him, twitching their noses...
- (transitive) To jerk sharply and briefly.to twitch somebody's sleeve for attention
- Alexander PopeThrice they twitched the diamond in her ear.
- (transitive) To spot or seek out a bird, especially a rare one.
- 1995, Quarterly Review of Biology vol. 70 p. 348:"The Birdwatchers Handbook ... will be a clear asset to those who 'twitch' in Europe."
- 2003, Mark Cocker, Birders: Tales of a Tribe http://books.google.com/books?id=tv-Noj1Fvc0C, ISBN 0802139965, page 52:"But the key revelation from twitching that wonderful Iceland Gull on 10 March 1974 wasn't its eroticism. It was the sheer innocence of it."
- 2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch: One Man, One Continent, a Race Against Time http://books.google.com/books?id=fWLmpqL4EMsC, ISBN 1741145287, page 119:"I hadn't seen John since I went to Adelaide to (unsuccessfully) twitch the '87 Northern Shoveler, when I was a skinny, eighteen- year-old kid. "
Usage notes
When used of birdwatchers by ignorant outsiders, this term frequently carries a negative connotation.
Derived terms
Origin 2
alternate of quitch