Meaning of Twit | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A short, high-pitched call of a small bird, or a similar sound made by something else; a cheep, a chirp, a tweet.
2. Chiefly in the form in a twit: clipping of twitter (“a state of excitement or nervousness”).
   US, informal
3. Clipping of twitter (“a knot or other defect in a thread or yarn which hinders spinning or weaving”).
   Northern-England, Scotland, abbreviation, alt-of, archaic, clipping
4. A jibe, reproach, or taunt, especially one made in a good-natured or teasing manner.
5. An annoying or foolish person.
   informal
6. A person who chatters or gossips inanely; a chatterer, a gossip or gossiper; also, a person who divulges private information about others or is indiscreet; a tattletale.
   British, Ireland, archaic, dialectal

Equivalents

Examples

“[T]he ſayd Thomas Hilles & this Reſpondent ſhevvyd the Frear Barons of certayne old Bookes that they had: as of iiij Evangeliſtes, and certayne Epiſtles of Peter & Poule in Engliſhe. VVhich Bookes the ſayd Frear dyd litle regard, and made a tvvyte of it, & ſayd, A poynt for them, for they be not to be regarded tovvard the nevv printed Teſtament in Engliſhe.”

“Wid[ow]. Novv I have receiv'd you into my Family, / I hope you vvill let my maids go quietly about / Their buſineſs, Sir. / S[ir] Fred[erick Frollick]. Upon condition there be no tvvits of the good man / Departed; no preſcription pleaded for evil cuſtoms / On the VVedding night.”

“[S]he, beginning to despair of finally winning him, looked about for other consolations, not, however, without an occasional twit at him for disappointing her.”

“What do you mean, since when did I become such a radical fairy! […] Since I started knowing twits like you, you twit!”

“Young Strephon he has Woo'd me long, / And Courted me with Pipe and Song; / But I a silly, silly peevish Twit, / For want of Sense, for want of Wit, / Have phoo'd, and cry'd, / Have pish'd, and fy'd, / And play'd the fool, and lost my Time, / And almost slipp'd, and almost slipp'd, / And almost slipp'd my Maiden Prime.”

“The minutes seem'd hours—with impatience she heard / The flap of a leaf, and the twit of a bird; […]”

“[I]s't a cursed wab o' yarn / That winna work, for knots and twits, / Spun by some thoughtless drabby sluts, / Whase minds on naething else is carried, / But thinking when they will be married; […]”

CEFR level