6548 
This very sword 
Of mine slew more than any twain besides. 
Beau, and Fl., Laws of Candy, i. 2. 
All is over all is done, 
Twain of yesterday are one ! 
Whittier, The New Wife and the Old. 
In twain (formerly also on twain), in or into two parts ; 
asunder. 
With that stroke he brake his sheld on twayn. 
Generydes (E. E. T. S.), 1. 2632. 
Now Death has come intill his bower, 
And split his heart in twain. 
Bonny Bee-Ho'm (Child's Ballads, III. 58). 
ME. 
. Cf. /win 2 , r.] To part 
sunder. 
We in twynne wern towen & twayned. 
Alliteratioe Poems (ed. Morris), I. 251. 
It were great sin true love to twain ! 
Clerk Saunders (Child's Ballads, II. 48). 
ing'by i]obb~ that 7s~ 200 divisions of "the scale represent twain-cloud (twan'kloud), n. In meteor., same 
unity. Sometimes spelled Twaddle. ag cmm ili>-stratus. See cloud*, 1. 
A Twaddle instrument constructed for liquids. twaite 1 (twat), . An obsolete or dialectal 
O'NeOl, Dyeing and Calico Printing, p. 63. 
tuzzy 
tuzzy (tuz'i), n.; pi. tunics (-iz). [Formerly 
also tuissy; dim. of tusz; ef. ttMrfMlltty.] _ 1. 
A tuft or bunch of hair. See the quotation. 
[Prov. Eng.] 
A ball of horsehair, such as is used by copper plate print- 
ers to assist in freeing their hands from ink (they call it a 
tuzzy). Sci. Amer., N. S., LXII. 131. 
Hence 2. A cluster or bunch of objects, as 
flowers; a bouquet. [Provincial.] 
A girdle of flowers and tussiesot all fruits, intertyed and 
following together. 
Donne, Hist. Septuagint (ed. 1633), p. 49. (Richardson.) 
twa (twii or twa), a. An obsolete or Scotch form ***&&&**$' ?\ *' 
of two. 
Twaddell (twod'l), . [Named after its inven- 
tor.] A hydrometer graduated so that each 
division represents the same change of density. 
It is used for densities greater than that of water, and the 
excess above unity is found by multiplying by 5 and divid- 
twat 
3. To utter with n short, sharp, or nasal sound ; 
specifically, to pronounce with a nasal twang. 
A terrible oath, with a swaggering accent sharply 
twanged otf. Shak., T. N., ill. 4. 198. 
The cicerone twangs his moral, and the blue sky shines 
calmly over the ruin.' Thackeray, Congreve and Addison. 
twang 1 (twang), . [< tirang*, '.] 1. The 
sound of a tense string set in sudden sharp vi- 
bration by plucking ; hence, any sharp, ringing 
musical sound. 
If Cynthia hear the ttrang of my bow, shell go near to 
whip me with the string. 
B. Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, v. 3. 
The sharp clear twang of the golden chords 
Kuns up the ridged sea. Tennyson, Sea Fairies. 
2. A sharp, ringing nasal tone, especially of 
the human voice. 
I like your southern accent : it is so pure, so soft. It 
has no rugged burr, no nasal twang, such as almost every 
one's voice here in the north has. 
Charlotte Bronte, Shirley, xxv. 
No signs of life occurred near him, but occasionally the 
melancholy chirp of a cricket, or perhaps the guttural 
foolish, prosy chatter. 
Harry Warrington is green Telemachns, who, be sure, 
was very unlike the soft youth in the good Bishop of Cam- 
bray's twaddling story. Thackeray, Virginians, xviii. 
A kind of shad, Alosa finta. 
The peel, the tweat, the bottling, and the rest, 
With many more, that in the deep doth lie. 
J. Dennys (Arber's Eng. Garner, I. 175). 
To be sure, Cicero used to twaddle about Greek litera- t , twall (twal), a. Scotch forms of twelve. 
n rrd d ay P s hlI08 Phy ' ^X$ti3&S? twa-iofted (twa'loked), a. Having two lofts 
or stories. [Scotch.] 
Folks are far frae respecting me as they wad do if I 
lived in a two-lofted sclated house. 
Scott, Bride of Lammermoor, xxiv. 
twalpennies (twal'pen'iz), M. pi. Twelvepence 
in the old Scottish currency, equal to one penny 
sterling. 
Saunders, in addition to the customary twalpennies on 
the postage, had a dram for his pains. 
Gait, Ayrshire Legatees, ii. 
2. Idle, senseless talk; gabble; prosy nonsense, twant. An obsolete preterit of tieine*. 
twaddle (twod'l), . [< twaddle, v."] 1. A 
twaddler. 
The fashionable words or favourite expressions of the 
day, . . . being superseded by new ones, vanish without 
leaving a trace behind. Such were the late fashionable 
words, a bore and a twaddle, among the great vulgar. 
Grose, Class. Diet, of Vulgar Tongue (ed. 1788), Pref., p. ix. 
The devil take the twaddle !. . .1 must tip him the cold 
shoulder, or he will be pestering me eternally. 
Scott, St. Ronan s Well, xxx. 
string of a musical instrument, a bow, etc., 
3. Perplexity; confusion. Grose, Diet, of Vulgar wbel f p]ucked and suddenly set free : said also 
Tongue. =Syn. 2. Chatter, Jargon, etc. See prattle, n. 
twaddler (twod'ler), ?i. [< tivaddle + -er*.~] 
One who twaddles; a babbler; a prater. 
The cardinals appeared a wretched set of old twaddlers, 
all but about three in extreme decrepitude. 
GreviUe, Memoirs, April 4, 1830. 
twaddling (twod'ling), n. [Verbal n. of twad- 
dle, t'.] The act of one who twaddles; silly, 
empty talk ; twaddle. 
twaddly (twod'li), a. [< twaddle + -i/ 1 .] Con- 
sisting of twaddle ; twaddling. 
It is rather an offensive word to use, especially consid- 
ering the greatness of the writers who have treated the 
subject [old age]; but their lucubrations seem to me to be 
twaddly. Helps. 
twae (twa), (i. and w. A Scotch form of two. 
twaggert (twag'er), ". [Cf. twiyyer.'] A fat 
lamb. 
And I have brought a twagger for the nones, 
A bunting lamb ; nay, pray, you feel no bones : 
Believe me now, my cunning much I miss 
If ever Pan felt fatter lamb than this. 
Peele, Arraignment of Paris, i. 1. 
twain (twan), a. and n. [< ME. twayn, twayne, 
twein, twey, tweyn, tweyne, twaien, twegen, < AS. 
tweyen (= OS. OFries. twene = D. twee = MLG. 
twene, tweine, LG. tvene = OHG. ewene, MHG. 
zwene, G. (obs. ) zween = Dan. tvendc = Sw. tvenne 
= Goth, ticeihnai), two ; the masc. form of two: 
see two.'] I. a. Two. [Obsolete or archaic.] 
He ... bad Bette kut a bow other tweyne. 
Piers Plowman (B), v. 32. 
By than the yere was all agone 
He had no man but twayne. 
Lytell Geste of Robyn Hade (Child's Ballads, V. 120). 
Riding at noon, a day or twain before, 
Across the forest call'd of Dean. 
Tennyson, Pelleas and Ettarre. 
To be twain, to be two different persons or things ; 
hence, to be separate or sundered. 
Reason and I, you must conceive, are twain; 
Tis nine years now since first I lost my wit 
Drayton, Idea, ix. 
II. n. Two units, occurring or regarded either 
singly or separate ; a couple ; a pair. [Obsolete 
or archaic.] 
A man . . . shall cleave to his wife ; and they twain shall 
be one flesh. . . . They are no more twain but one flesh. 
Mat. xix. 6, 6. 
Go with me 
To bless this twain, that they may prosperous be. 
Sltak., Tempest, iv. 1. 104. 
of other instruments which make a similar 
sound. 
To Twangue, resonare. 
Levins, Manip. Vocab. (E. E. T. S.), p. 23. 
Yet, shooting upward, sends his shaft, to show 
An archer's arti and boasts his twanging bow. 
Dryden, Mneia, v. 688. 
Hark ! 'tis the twanging horn o'er yonder bridge. 
Cowper, Task, iv. 1. 
Twang out, my fiddle : Tennyson, Amphion. 
2. To make music on a stringed instrument 
that is played by plucking or snapping ; cause 
a sharp ringing sound like that of a harp or 
bowstring: as, to twang on a jews'-harp. 
When the harper twangeth or singeth a song, all the 
companie must be whist. 
Stanihurgt, Descrip. of Ireland, viii. (Holinshed's Chron., 
[I.). 
3. To have a nasal sound: said of the human 
voice ; also, to speak with a nasal twang : said 
of persons. 
Every accent twanged. Dryden. 
4f. To shoot with a bow ; make a shot; hence, 
figuratively, to surmise ; guess. 
Hor. These be black slaves ; Romans, take heed of these. 
Tuc. Thou twang'gt right, little Horace: they be in- 
deed a couple of chap-fallen curs. 
imitative of the twang of a bowstring, 
string, etc. 
It made John sing, to hear the gold ring, 
Which against the walls cryed twang. 
Little John and the Four Beggars (Child's Ballads, V. 327). 
There 'S one, the best in all my Quiver, 
Twang ! thro' his very Heart and Liver. 
Prior, Mercury and Cupid. 
twang 2 ! (twang), . [A var. of tang?.] A sharp 
taste ; a disagreeable after-taste or flavor left 
in the mouth ; a tang; a flavor. [Prov. Eng.] 
Such were my reflections ; ... it seems, from the illus- 
tration, they already began to have a twemp of commerce 
in them. Scott, Rob Roy, xviii. 
Hot, bilious, with a confounded twang in his mouth, 
and a cracking pain in his head, he stood one moment and 
snuffed in the salt sea breeze. Disraeli, Young Duke, iv. 6. 
twang 3 (twang), n. [Prob. < twang*, with 
sense imported from twinge.] A sharp pull; 
a sudden pang, a twinge. Halliwell. [Prov. 
Eng. and Scotch.] 
My curse upon thy venom'd stang. 
That shoots my tortur'd gums alang, 
An' through my lugs gi'es mony a twang. 
Burns, Address to the Toothache. 
twangle (twang'gl), r.; pret. and pp. twangled, 
ppr. twangling. [Freq. of ticang*.~\ I. intrans. 
To twang lightly or frequently : said either of 
an instrument or of its player. 
She did call me rascal fiddler 
And twangling Jack. Shak., T. of the S., ii. 1. 159. 
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments 
Will hum about mine ears, and sometimes voices. 
Shak., Tempest, lit. 2. 146. 
"Ay, fool," said Tristram, "but 'tis eating dry 
To dance without a catch, a roundelay 
To dance to." Then he twangled on his harp. 
Tennyson, Last Tournament. 
II. trans. To cause to twangle. 
The young Andrea bears up gayly, however ; twangles 
his guitar. Thackeray, Shabby Genteel Story, ii. 
(twang'gl), n. [< twangle, v.] A 
sound ; a twang or clang. 
Loud, on the heath, a twangle rush'd, 
That rung out Supper, grand and big, 
From the crack'd bell of Blarneygig. 
Caiman, Poetical Vagaries, p. 111. (Dames.) 
twangler (twang'gler), n. One who twangles 
or twangs. 
Beaters of drums and twanglers of the wire. 
Library Mag., III. 773. 
B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1. twank (twangk) . f . [A var . of twang i implv . 
Togoofftwangingt.togowell; go swimmingly. ing ft more abrupt sou nd.] To emit a sharp 
An old fool, to be guild thus! had he died, . . . twang 
It had gone of 1 W*3- A , reeman of T^,,,, has the privi iege of disturbing a 
M asiingcr, Ho .tor, ii. 1. who]e ^^ for m hou] , together> with the (wanting o f a 
II. trans. 1 . To cause to sound with a short brass kettle or a frying-pan. Addison, Spectator, No. 251. 
sharp ring; set in quick, resounding vibration, t wan k (twangk), n. [< tieanl; .] A sharp 
as the tense string of a bow or a musical in- t w ang. Imp. Diet. 
strument that is played by plucking : said less twankay (twang'ka), n. [< Chinese tun-Vl, a 
frequently of wind-instruments. rivulet near Yen-chow fu, in the west of the 
The Fleet in View, he twang'd his deadly Bow. 
Pope, Hiad, i. 67. 
The old original post, with the stamp in the corner, rep- 
resenting a post-boy riding for life and tiran'itii'j his horn. 
Mrs. Gaskell, Cranford, v. 
A black-haired girl . . . twangs a stringed instrument 
with taper fingers. Harper's Mag., LXXIX. 492. 
2. To sound forth by means of a twanging in- 
strument. 
The trumpeter strutted up and down the ramparts 
twanging defiance to the whole Yankee race, as does a 
modern editor to all the principalities and powers on the 
other side of the Atlantic. Irving, Knickerbocker, p. 225. 
province of Che-kiang, where this kind of tea 
is grown.] A brand of green tea grown and 
prepared in the western part of the province 
of Che-kiang, China, 
'twas (two?,). A contraction of it was. 
Farewell, you mad rascals. To horse, come. 'Twas 
well done, 'twas well done. 
Dekker and Webster, Northward Ho, iv. 4. 
twat (twot), n. [Origin obscure.] The female 
pudendum. Fleiclicr, Poems, p. 104. (Hulli- 
well.} [Vulgar.] 
Twat. Pudendum muliebre. Bailey, 1727. 
