twinge
/twɪnd͡ʒ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.53 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To have a sudden, pinching or sharp pain in a specific part of the body, like a twitch.
Intransitive verb
verb
To pull and twist (someone or something); to pinch, to tweak, to twitch, to wring.
Obsolete; Transitive verb
verb
To affect or torment (someone, their mind, or part of their body) with one or more sudden, pinching or sharp pains; to irritate.
Obsolete; Transitive verb
noun
A sudden, pinching or sharp pain in a specific part of the body, especially one lasting for a short time.
Example Sentences
- "My side twinges if I sit too long."
- "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."
- "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."
- "Thus Captaine Beſſus, thus; thus tvvinge your noſe, thus kicke, thus tread you."
- "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."
- "[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."
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: twengen, twenġan, *twangijan, *twangijaną, *twenk-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /twɪnd͡ʒ/
- British English: /twɪnd͡ʒ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
twinges (present, singular)
twingeing (participle, present)
twinging (participle, present)
twinged (participle, past)
twinged (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
twinged (first person, past)
twingest (archaic, present)
twinged (past, second person)
twingedst (archaic, past)
twingeth (archaic, present)