twig

From Middle English twig, twyg, from Old English twiġ, from Proto-Germanic *twīgą (compare West Frisian twiich, Dutch twijg, German Zweig), from Proto-Indo-European *dweygʰom (compare Old Church Slavonic двигъ (dvigŭ, “branch”), Albanian degë (“branch”)), from *dwóh₁. More at two.

• (US) IPA^(key): /twɪɡ/, [tʰw̥ɪɡ]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪɡ

twig (plural twigs)

1. A small thin branch of a tree or bush.

   They used twigs and leaves as a base to start the fire.

   • 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 1, in The Dust of Conflict‎:

     A beech wood with silver firs in it rolled down the face of the hill, and the maze of leafless twigs and dusky spires cut sharp against the soft blueness of the evening sky.

2. (bodybuilding, slang) Somebody, or one of his body parts, not looking developed.
   • 2007 February 24, Matt Weik, CSCS, “Successful Tips and Tricks For Contest Prep!”, in Bodybuilding.com‎:

     You need to find a source of motivation and play off of that. Whether it be the jock in high school that always called you fat, or the guy who picked on you and called you a twig.

   • 2022 July 19, Jason Rossi, “Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Most Dangerous Mistake on ‘True Lies’: ‘It Would Have Put Us Back 30 Days in the Production’”, in Showbiz CheatSheet‎:

     Schwarzenegger was long past his professional bodybuilding days when he and Carrere shot the tango scene, but he wasn’t a twig.

• tillow

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

1. (transitive) To beat with twigs.

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

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

1. (colloquial, regional) To realise something; to catch on; to recognize someone or something.

   He hasn't twigged that we're planning a surprise party for him.

   • 1765, “A Song in High Life”, in The Merry Medley, volume 1, London: W. Hoggard, page 35:

     I pray you now send me some dub, / A bottle or two to the needy. / I beg you won't bring it yourself, / The harman is at the Old-Bailey; / I'd rather you'd send it behalf, / For, if they twig you they'll nail you.

   • 1915, “Putting on the Screw”, in Caught in the Net, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, translation of Les Esclaves de Paris by Émile Gaboriau, page 23:

     I twigged him at once, by the description you gave me. I never see a cove togged out as he was,—tall hat, light sit-down-upons, and a short coat—wasn't it cut short! but in really bang-up style.

     J'y ai reconnu le particulier que vous m'avez dit. Bien vêtu, ma foi! Chapeau rogné, tout plat, pantalon clair, en fourreau de parapluie, veston court, oh! mais d'un court... enfin, le dernier genre.

   • 2012 May 30, John E. McIntyre, “A future for copy editors”, in Baltimore Sun‎, archived from the original on 23 June 2013:

     Well, with fewer people doing two or three times the work, you may have already twigged to this.

   • 2019 March 13, Drachinifel, 18:23 from the start, in The Russian 2nd Pacific Squadron - Voyage of the Damned‎, archived from the original on 29 January 2023:

     At this point in our story, we first meet the fleet repair ship Kamchatka, who everyone would soon become regrettably familiar with. Her entry into our account here was her signal that she was under attack by torpedo boats! When she was asked how many, she replied "about eight, from all directions!". Eventually, someone twigged to the fact that absolutely nobody else could see so much as a seagull, let alone any exceptionally-lost Japanese torpedo boats. And, when nothing actually happened, Kamchatka refused to say that it was a false alarm, only that it had altered course and the torpedo boats had gone away.

2. To understand the meaning of (a person); to comprehend.

   Do you twig me?

3. To observe slyly; also, to perceive; to discover.[1]
   • 1763, Samuel Foote, The Mayor of Garratt, act 2:

     Now twig him; now mind him: mark how he hawls his muscles about.

   • 1863, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Our Old Home:

     This excellent man appears to have sunk into himself in a sitting posture, […] while his exceedingly homely and wrinkled face, held a little on one side, twinkles at you with the shrewdest complacency, as if he were looking right into your eyes and twigged something there which you had half a mind to conceal from him.

• (to realise something): clock, get it, notice; see also Thesaurus:identify
• (to understand the meaning): fathom, figure out, grasp, ken, work out
• (to observe slyly): check out, peep, spy on, surveil

Compare tweak.

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

1. (obsolete, Scotland) To pull[1]
   • 1755, John Shebbeare, Lydia: Or, Filial Piety:

     Frank shall twig your Nose from your Face

2. To twitch[1]
3. To tweak[1]

• (Early ME) twi, twiȝ
• twigge, twyg, twygge, tuyg

Inherited from Old English twig, from Proto-West Germanic *twīg, from Proto-Germanic *twīgą.

• IPA^(key): /twiɡ/, /twiː/

twig (plural twigges)

1. Any part of a tree, especially a branch or cutting:
   1. A twig or tillow; a shoot branching off a tree.
   2. An easily bending branch used in crafts.
2. (figurative, rare) A subtype or part of something; the result or descendant of something.

• English: twig
• Scots: twigg, tuigg

• “twig, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-08-08.

From Proto-Germanic *twīgą.

• IPA^(key): /twij/

twiġ n

1. twig
2. branch

• Middle English: twig
  • English: twig