twig

Use twig in a sentence

noun

The definition of a twig is a small branch on a tree.

A little tree branch growing off of a larger branch is an example of a twig.

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"twig." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 21 April 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Twig>.

APA Style

twig. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21st, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Twig

twig

a small, slender branch or shoot of a tree or shrub

Origin of twig

Middle English twigge from OE, akin to German zweig from Indo-European an unverified form dwigho- from base an unverified form dwöu-, two: probably with reference to the forking of the twig

transitive verb

intransitive verb

twigged, twig′ging

to observe
to understand

Origin of twig

via thieves' slang from Irish tuigim, I understand

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MLA Style

"twig." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 21 April 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Twig>.

APA Style

twig. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21st, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Twig

twig

noun

A young shoot representing the current season's growth of a woody plant.
Any small, leafless branch of a woody plant.

Origin of twig

Middle English from Old English twigge ; see dwo- in Indo-European roots.

verb

twigged, twig·ging, twigs Chiefly British

verb

transitive

To observe or notice.
To understand or figure out: “The layman has twigged what the strategist twigged almost two decades ago” ( Manchester Guardian Weekly )

verb

intransitive

To be or become aware of the situation; understand: “As Europe is now twigging, the best breeding ground for innovators who know how to do business is often big, competitive companies” ( Economist )

Origin of twig

Perhaps from Irish Gaelic tuig- stem of tuigim I understand from Old Irish tuicim

noun

Archaic

The current style; the fashion.

Origin of twig

Origin unknown

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"twig." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 21 April 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Twig>.

APA Style

twig. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21st, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Twig

Noun

(plural twigs)

A small thin branch of a tree or bush.
They used twigs and leaves as a base to start the fire.

Verb

(third-person singular simple present twigs, present participle twigging, simple past and past participle twigged)

To beat with twigs.

Origin

Old English twigge, from Proto-Germanic *twÄ«gÄ… (compare West Frisian twiich, Dutch twijg, German Zweig), from Proto-Indo-European *dwigha (compare Old Church Slavonic [script?] (dvigÅ, “branch"), Albanian degÃ« 'id.'), from *dwÃ³ 'two'. More at two.

Verb

(third-person singular simple present twigs, present participle twigging, simple past and past participle twigged)

(colloquial, regional) To realise something; to catch on.
- 2012 May 30, John E. McIntyre, “A future for copy editors", Baltimore Sun:
  Well, with fewer people doing two or three times the work, you may have already twigged to this.
To understand the meaning of (a person); to comprehend.
Do you twig me?
To observe slyly; also, to perceive; to discover.

Origin

From Irish and Scottish Gaelic tuig (“to understand").

Verb

(third-person singular simple present twigs, present participle twigging, simple past and past participle twigged)

(obsolete, Scotland) To twitch; to pull; to tweak.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster's Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Origin

Compare tweak.

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.