twit
Part of speech: verb
noun
intj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
Etymology: PIE word
 *h₂éd
The verb is an apheretic form of atwite (“(obsolete) to blame, reproach”), from Middle English atwiten (“to attribute (something) to someone; to blame (something) on someone; to accuse or charge (someone) with something; to speak ill of; to taunt”), from Old English ætwītan (“to blame, reproach; to censure, upbraid; to taunt”), from æt- (prefix meaning ‘at, near; toward’) + wītan (“to accuse; to blame, reproach”) (from Proto-Germanic *wītaną (“to punish; to torment; to know; to see”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see”)). Piecewise doublet of advise.
The noun is probably derived from the verb, although it is attested in print earlier.
Inflected forms:
form: twits
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: twitting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: twitted
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: twitted
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: twit
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: twit
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: twitted
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: twit
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: twittest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: twitted
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: twittedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: twits
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: twitteth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: twitted
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: twit
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: twitted
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: twit
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: twitted
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: twit
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: twitting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: twitted
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: twits
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To blame or reproach (someone), especially in a good-natured or teasing manner; also, to ridicule or tease (someone).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: No man for deſpite, / By worde or by write / His felowe to twite, […]
[I]f vvee meane to tvvit a man that he is a foole, vve vvill ſay thou knovveſt not vvhat thou ſayeſt.
Hath he not tvvit our Soueraigne Lady here / VVith ignominious vvords, though Clarkely coucht? / As if ſhe had ſuborned ſome to ſvveare / Falſe allegations, to o'rethrovv his ſtate.
Well wanton, laugh not my ould age to ſcorne, / nor twit me ſo my ſenſes to haue loſte, / the time hath been when as my hopefull morne / promiſ'd as much as nowe thy youth can boaſte: […]
This Hannah though ſilent vvhen tvvitted by Peninnah for barrenneſs, found her tongue vvhen here taxed by Eli of drunkenneſs: becauſe a meer ſufferer in the former, but in the latter a ſinner, had the accuſation been true.
Thou twittest me with my Grey Hairs, yet considerest not how I am of the Nature of Leeks, which with a white Head carry a green, fresh, streight, and vigorous Tail.
The old Non-conformiſts being the ſame vvith the modern Presbuterians, but depreſſed and under, as the modern Presbuterians are the old Non-conformiſts, but vertical and in Authority, do (though the Animadvertor tvvitteth me conſtantly to Advocate for them) take great and general exception at me; […]
Again in the ſecond Book of the Chronicles, there Abijah King of Juda ſpeaking to Iſrael, upbraids to them their confidence in their multitude, and in their Golden Calves vvhich Jeroboam made them for Gods; tvvitting them thereby aſſuredly for their Idolatry; […]
Hovv much are vve Oblig'd then, […] to Æſop, in the Firſt Place, as the Founder, and Original Author, or Inventer of This Art of Schooling Mankind into Better Manners; by Minding Men of their Errors vvithout Tvvitting them for what's Amiſs, and by That Means Flaſhing the Light of their Ovvn Conſciences in their Ovvn Faces!
Novv this, 'tis probable, theſe Scoffers tvvitted the Chriſtians vvithall; And becauſe Chriſt did not come vvhen ſome looked for him, they concluded he vvould not come at all.
VVhen on a ſubſequent day, he vvas tvvitted by Mrs. Thrale for being very late, vvhich he generally vvas, he defended himſelf by alluding to the extraordinary morning, vvhen he had been too early, "Madam, I do not like to come down to vacuity."
No rascally comparative insults a Beggar, or thinks of weighing purses with him. […] No one twitteth him with ostentation above his means. No one accuses him of pride, or upbraideth him with mock humility.
Nay, do not twit me now with all the freaks, / And levities, and gambols charged upon me / By every lean-faced dame that wears a hood.
Now some imaginatively heterodoxical men are often surprisingly twitted upon their willful inverting of all common-sense notions, their absurd and all-displacing transcendentals, which say three is four, and two and two make ten.
Anything would be better than being twitted in this way. How can I help it that I am not a man and able to work for my bread?
The honourable member for Ellesmere, on the opening of this session, got up and twitted them with not being there on the first day.
Dear France, thou thy insular neighbour oft twittest / As "Shopkeeper!" Well ma'am, j'y suis, and shall stop; / For a Shopkeeper's one who—of course—keeps the Shop!
Mr. Cramer, a policeman, came this morning and twitted me for having let a murderer hoodwink me.
gloss: To criticize or disapprove of (something), especially in a good-natured or teasing manner.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
examples: But in the Lovver Houſe ſome there vvere vvhich handled theſe things more tumultuouſly, namely, Bell and Monſon, great Lavvyers, Dutton, Paul VVentvvorth, and others, vvhich tvvitted the Authority of the Queen's Majeſty too much, […]
gloss: To ignore or kill file (a user on a bulletin board system).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: However, on the Internet BBS's such as Quartz (now dead), Prism, Monsoon, Sunset, ect,^([sic – meaning etc]) someone pulling that kind of crap is likely to get flamed quite fast and twitted before he/she can breathe.
Not only are some of the notoriously foul-mouthed echoes excluded from the BBS message base, but each message is auto-censored for key words that are, in the opinion of the SysOp (me in this case), offensive to a "G" audience. And no, it isn't 100% effective. And no, there is no "thought purification program" that can filter out some folks^([sic]) obscene ideas that can be expressed w/o written vulgarities. That has to be simply "dealt" with, either by ignoring or twitting the individual that offends habitually.
gloss: Followed by it: to speak or write (something) in a taunting or teasing manner.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
gloss: To blame or reproach, especially in a good-natured or teasing manner.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
transitive
examples: Secrecy about B.R. plans for reorganisation and closure of lines and notably some failures to consult with staff representatives concerned with redundancy, are defects with which the railway unions have twitted Dr. Beeching.
H[enry] R[ichard] Fox Bourne, secretary of the Aborigines' Protection Society – often twitted for being an 'armchair critic' – wrote in a review of one of [Henry Morton] Stanley's books: 'The Society is not condemning Mr Stanley or his subordinates so much, but the mounting of an expedition with aims and methods which almost necessitated the cruelties and slaughters that were incident to it … It seems better to remain in armchairs and pass resolutions than wantonly to embark on perilous enterprises, which can only be carried out by means that degrade Englishmen.'
[…] [Francis] Coster a Ieſuit againſt Luke Oſiander, vvho obiecting out of Peter Lombard thoſe vvords, (Credit oportet, It muſt be beleeued) that the bleſſed Virgins fleſh vvas conceiued in originall ſinne; and pretending by thoſe vvords, to proue a Catholike beliefe therein, Coſter thus tvvitteth and retorteth againſt him; […]
gloss: To be indiscreet; to gossip.
pos: verb
tags: dialectal
intransitive
gloss: A jibe, reproach, or taunt, especially one made in a good-natured or teasing manner.
pos: noun
examples: [T]he ſayd Thomas Hilles & this Reſpondent ſhevvyd the Frear Barons of certayne old Bookes that they had: as of iiij Evangeliſtes, and certayne Epiſtles of Peter & Poule in Engliſhe. VVhich Bookes the ſayd Frear dyd litle regard, and made a tvvyte of it, & ſayd, A poynt for them, for they be not to be regarded tovvard the nevv printed Teſtament in Engliſhe.
Wid[ow]. Novv I have receiv'd you into my Family, / I hope you vvill let my maids go quietly about / Their buſineſs, Sir. / S[ir] Fred[erick Frollick]. Upon condition there be no tvvits of the good man / Departed; no preſcription pleaded for evil cuſtoms / On the VVedding night.
[S]he, beginning to despair of finally winning him, looked about for other consolations, not, however, without an occasional twit at him for disappointing her.
gloss: An annoying or foolish person.
pos: noun
tags: informal
examples: What do you mean, since when did I become such a radical fairy! […] Since I started knowing twits like you, you twit!
gloss: A person who chatters or gossips inanely; a chatterer, a gossip or gossiper; also, a person who divulges private information about others or is indiscreet; a tattletale.
pos: noun
tags: Ireland
UK
archaic
dialectal
examples: Young Strephon he has Woo'd me long, / And Courted me with Pipe and Song; / But I a silly, silly peevish Twit, / For want of Sense, for want of Wit, / Have phoo'd, and cry'd, / Have pish'd, and fy'd, / And play'd the fool, and lost my Time, / And almost slipp'd, and almost slipp'd, / And almost slipp'd my Maiden Prime.
gloss: Used to represent the short, high-pitched call of a small bird, or a similar sound made by something else: cheep, tweet.
pos: intj
tags: onomatopoeic
examples: Midnights bell goes ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, / Then dogs doe hovvle, and not a bird does ſing: / But the Nightingale, and ſhe cries tvvit, tvvit, tvvit, tvvit, / Ovvles then on euerie bovve doe ſit.
Twit twit twit / Jug jug jug jug jug jug / So rudely forc'd. / Tereu
Derived words: betwit
twitter
twitting
twittingly
twitling
twittish
twittishness
Twit-Tok
twit-twat
upper-class twit
twitty
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: натяквам
roman: natjakvam
lang: Bulgarian
word: упреквам
roman: uprekvam
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 嘲笑
roman: cháoxiào
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 责备
roman: zébèi
lang: Finnish
word: kiusoitella
lang: Neapolitan
word: sfotte
lang: Romanian
word: mustra
lang: Russian
word: упрека́ть
roman: uprekátʹ
lang: Welsh
word: edliw