Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To draw, pull, or move suddenly and sharply; jerk.
  • intransitive verb To move jerkily or spasmodically.
  • intransitive verb To ache sharply from time to time; twinge.
  • noun A sudden involuntary or spasmodic muscular movement.
  • noun A sudden pulling; a tug.
  • noun A sudden, sharp pain.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • A dialectal variant of touch.
  • To pull or draw with a hasty jerk; snatch; jerk away.
  • To give a short, sudden pull or tug at; jerk at; cause to move quickly or spasmodically.
  • To nip; squeeze; make fast; tie tightly.
  • To be suddenly jerked; move or contract quickly or spasmodically, as a muscle.
  • To carp; sneer; make flings. Compare jerk, intransitive verb, 2.
  • noun A short, sharp pull or tug; a jerk or snatch.
  • noun A short, spastic contraction of the fibers of muscles; a stitch; a twinge: as, a twitch in the side; convulsive twitches; especially, such a movement when causing pain: sometimes applied to moral pangs.
  • noun A pair of nippers or tweezers.
  • noun A noose attached to a stock or handle and twisted around the upper lip of a horse so as to bring him under command when shoeing or clipping: an instrument used for holding a vicious horse.
  • noun In mining, a sudden narrowing of a vein so that the walls come nearly or quite together.
  • noun The quitch or quitch-grass, Agropyrum repens.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To pull with a sudden jerk; to pluck with a short, quick motion; to snatch.
  • noun The act of twitching; a pull with a jerk; a short, sudden, quick pull.
  • noun A short, spastic contraction of the fibers or muscles; a simple muscular contraction.
  • noun (Far.) 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. By twisting the stick the compression is made sufficiently painful to keep the animal quiet during a slight surgical operation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun couch grass, a species of grass, often considered as a weed.
  • noun A brief, small (sometimes involuntary) movement out of place and then back again; a spasm.
  • noun informal Action of spotting or seeking out a bird, especially a rare one.
  • noun 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.
  • verb intransitive To perform a twitch; spasm.
  • verb transitive To jerk sharply and briefly.
  • verb transitive To spot or seek out a bird, especially a rare one.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb toss with a sharp movement so as to cause to turn over in the air
  • noun a sudden muscle spasm; especially one caused by a nervous condition
  • verb move or pull with a sudden motion
  • verb move with abrupt, seemingly uncontrolled motions
  • verb squeeze tightly between the fingers
  • verb make an uncontrolled, short, jerky motion

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English twicchen; possibly akin to Low German twikken.]

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Examples

  • And there's a whole bunch of other stuff that -- * twitch twitch* ohmygod THE CLEANING HAS COME UPON ME AGAIN!!

    ana-ng Diary Entry ana-ng 2009

  • Of course, that, and what I do today are technically "Stuff that should have happened during moving" so maybe it's ok. * twitch twitch* I'm fine.

    ana-ng Diary Entry ana-ng 2009

  • I've had a good life. * twitches a little* And now, now I get to finally see Silicon Heaven. * twitch twitch* Silicon Heaven IS real!

    ana-ng Diary Entry ana-ng 2009

  • I look forward to each and every excruciating minute of the next four cigarette free-hours. * twitch twitch* Yes, indeed. previous -- next

    ana-ng Diary Entry ana-ng 2009

  • RD is in fact the greatest work in English. * twitch twitch* I'm almost done, almost done, almost done ....

    ana-ng Diary Entry ana-ng 2009

  • "I liked the word twitch, but I felt really bad about it," he says.

    NPR Topics: News 2011

  • By the way, "twitch" is my word for the last 2 weeks.

    Enough PC-isms that it will make you twitch 2005

  • By the way, "twitch" is my word for the last 2 weeks.

    Archive 2005-11-01 2005

  • A sharp twitch is all it takes, and by rolling it, you can better expose the sides of the lure to maximize the flash it gives off.

    Favorite Lures of the Pike Guides 2009

  • Naldo had fought in the Battle of Britain, ending up with what was commonly called the twitch '.

    Final Resting Place of The Pen 2010

Comments

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  • TwItCh

    April 23, 2008

  • see couch grass

    July 25, 2008

  • Twitch has also come to have a slang meaning-- it is used as a noun variant of "bitch"-- for a "bitch" who is on twitter-- hence a "twitch".

    June 8, 2009