twinge
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /twɪnd͡ʒ/
rhymes: -ɪndʒ
Forms: form: twinges
form: twingeing
form: twinging
form: twinged
form: twinged
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: twinge
form: twinge
form: twinged
form: twinge
form: twingest
form: twinged
form: twingedst
form: twinges
form: twingeth
form: twinged
form: twinge
form: twinged
form: twinge
form: twinged
form: twinge
form: -
form: twinging
form: twinged
Etymology: The verb is derived from Middle English twengen (“to nip, pinch, tweak; to tear at”), from Old English twenġan (“to pinch, squeeze”), from Proto-West Germanic *twangijan (“to pinch, squeeze”), from Proto-Germanic *twangijaną (“to pinch, squeeze”), the causative form of *twinganą (“to press, squeeze”); further etymology uncertain, possibly related to *þwangiz (“belt, strap, thong; pressure, restraint”) or *þwinganą, *þwinhaną (“to constrain; to force”) (whence German zwingen), both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *twenk- (“to press, pressure, squeeze”). However, the Oxford English Dictionary says there is no evidence for such a relationship.
The noun is derived from the verb.
Senses: examples: text: My side twinges if I sit too long.
glosses: To have a sudden, pinching or sharp pain in a specific part of the body, like a twitch.
examples: text: That ring-dove, who was cooing half-a-mile away, has hushed his moan; that flock of long-tailed titmice, which were twinging and pecking about the fir-cones a few minutes since, are gone; and now there is not even a gnat to quiver in the slant sun-rays.
ref: 1858 April, Charles Kingsley, “My Winter-garden”, in Miscellanies […], volume I, London: John W[illiam] Parker and Son, […], published 1859, →OCLC, page 146:
qualifier: obsolete except UK
glosses: To pull and twist.
examples: text: I tell thee, I do vſe to teare their hair, to kick them, and to tvvindge their noſes, if they be not carefull in auoiding me.
ref: 1606 (date written), [Francis Beaumont; John Fletcher], The Woman Hater. […], London: […] [Robert Raworth], and are to be sold by John Hodgets […], published 1607, →OCLC, Act II, scene i, signature D2, verso:
text: Thus Captaine Beſſus, thus; thus tvvinge your noſe, thus kicke, thus tread you.
ref: 1612 January 5 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Francis Beaumont, Iohn Fletcher, A King and No King. […], London: […] [John Beale] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1619, →OCLC, Act V, page 72:
text: Eaſe his pockets / Of a ſuperfluous VVatch, or geld a ievvell / Of an odde ſtone, or ſo. Tvvinge three or foure buttons / From off my Ladyes govvne. Theſe are the arts / Or ſeuen liberall deadly ſciences / of Pagery, or rather Paganiſme, / As the tides run.
ref: 1629 (first performance), B[en] Jonson, The New Inne. Or, The Light Heart. […], London: […] Thomas Harper, for Thomas Alchorne, […], published 1631, →OCLC, Act I, scene iii, signature B4, recto:
text: [E]ntring into the pores of the ſkin, it [coldness] keeps back and drives in again the little bodies of heat, by oppoſing the bodies of cold, and vvith its little ſharp corners, it tears and tvvingeth all things vvhereſoever it paſſes.
ref: 1659–1660, Thomas Stanley, “[The Doctrine of Epicurus.] Chap[ter] XV. Qualities from Atoms, Considered according to Their Properties, Taken together.”, in The History of Philosophy, the Third and Last Volume, […], volume III, London: […] Humphrey Moseley, and Thomas Dring, […], →OCLC, 5th part (Containing the Epicurean Sect), 2nd part of philosophy (Physick, or, Of Nature), page 163:
text: For vvhen a Man is paſt his Senſe, / There's no way to Reduce him thence, / But tvvinging him by th' Ears, or Noſe, / Or laying on of heavy Blovvs, / And if that vill not do the Deed, / To burning vvith Hot Irons proceed.
ref: 1677 (indicated as 1678), [Samuel Butler], “Canto I”, in Hudibras. The Third and Last Part. […], London: […] Simon Miller, […], →OCLC, page 67:
text: Thou twingest therewith as doth a (pair of) tongs.
ref: 1867, Richard Morris, “Notes”, in Specimens of Early English Selected from the Chief English Authors A.D. 1250–A.D. 1400 […] (Clarendon Press Series), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 399:
qualifier: except UK
glosses: To pull and twist (someone or something); to pinch, to tweak, to twitch, to wring.
examples: text: For the Chiefeſt cauſe of pain in VVounds of the nerves is the excrementitious matter ſhut up; vvhich being overlong detayned getteth to it ſelf a depraved quality, pulleth and tvvingeth the Nerves, and at length putrifieth.
ref: 1661, Daniel Sennert, “Of the Wounds of the Nerves, and Tendons, in General, and of the Pricking of the Nerves”, in [Nicholas Culpeper; Abdiah Cole], transl., The Art of Chirurgery, Explained in Six Parts … being the Whol Fifth Book of Practical Physick, London: […] Peter Cole and Edward Cole, […], →OCLC, book V (Of the External Diseases), part IV (Of Wounds), page 2676, column 1:
text: The Gnat Charg'd into the Noſtrils of the Lyon, and there Tvving'd him, till he made him Tear himſelf vvith his Ovvn Pavvs. And in the Concluſion he Maſter'd the Lyon.
ref: 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Barlandus, &c.] Fab[le] CCI. A Gnat Challenges a Lyon.”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC, page 171:
text: [T]vving'd vvith pain, he penſive ſits, / And raves, and prays, and ſvvears by fits, […]
ref: 1727, [John] Gay, “Fable XXXI. The Universal Apparition.”, in Fables, 2nd edition, volume I, London: […] J[acob] Tonson and J. Watts, published 1728, →OCLC, page 118:
glosses: To affect or torment (someone, their mind, or part of their body) with one or more sudden, pinching or sharp pains; to irritate.
examples: text: [N]othing did tvvinge my Conſcience like this: Every time that I thought of the Lord Jeſus, of his Grace, Love, Goodneſs, Kindneſs, Gentleneſs, Meekneſs, Death, Blood, Promiſes and bleſſed Exhortations, Comforts and Conſolations, it vvent to my Soul like a Svvord; […]
ref: 1692, John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners: […], 7th edition, London: […] Robert Ponder, […], →OCLC, paragraph 184, page 89:
text: [I]f any of his father's old notions of economy by chance twinged his conscience, Belle very judiciously asked how he ever came to think of her for a wife?
ref: 1804, Maria Edgeworth, “Out of Debt, Out of Danger. Chapter I. The Contests of Vanity are the Death of Common Sense.”, in Popular Tales, volume I, London: Printed for J[oseph] Johnson, […], [b]y C. Mercier and Co., […], →OCLC, page 321:
text: The Archbishop of Liege, formerly a great adherent and ally of [Napoleon] Buonaparte, has found his conscience alarmingly twinged by so ominous a declaration on the part of a Calvinistic monarch, and has already made his remonstrance against this part of the proposed constitution in a pastoral letter, which is couched in a very determined language.
ref: 1816, [Walter Scott], “Letter X. Paul to ——, Esq. of ——.”, in Paul’s Letters to His Kinsfolk, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, and John Murray, →OCLC, pages 229–230:
glosses: To prick or stimulate (one's conscience).
Derived terms: word: twinger
word: twingeing
word: twinging
english: or from the noun
translation: or from the noun
word: twingy