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twig

US/twɪɡ/ uncommon obsolete slang
noun (1) verb (2)

noun

1.

small branch or division of a branch; usually applied to branches of the current or preceding year

Synonyms

verb

1.

branch out in a twiglike manner

  • “The lightning bolt twigged in several directions”
2.

Origin

PIE word *dwóh₁ Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *twīgą Proto-West Germanic *twīg Old English twiġ Middle English twig English twig From Middle English twig, twyg, twigge, twygge, from Old English twigg, twicg, from Proto-West Germanic *twiggu (“small twig, shoot”), apparently a diminutive of Proto-West Germanic *twig (“branch, twig”) (whence also Old English twiġ and twiġa), from Proto-Germanic *twīgą, from Proto-Indo-European *dwigʰom, from *dwóh₁. More at two. Cognates Cognate with North Frisian twiich, twiig (“twig”), Saterland Frisian Twiech (“branch, twig”), West Frisian twiich (“twig”), Dutch twijg (“twig”), German Zweig (“branch, twig; section”), German Low German Twieg (“branch, twig”), Luxembourgish Zwäig (“twig”), Yiddish צווײַג (tsvayg, “branch”); also Old Church Slavonic двигъ (dvigŭ, “branch”), Albanian degë (“branch”).

Phrases

  • a twig in a bundle cannot be broken
  • a twig in a bundle is unbreakable
  • fall off the twig
  • hop the twig
  • in prime twig
  • Macaya green twig anole
  • off one's twig
  • one can't break a twig in a bundle

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.