twitch

Plural: twitches

Noun

• a sudden muscle spasm; especially one caused by a nervous condition
• A brief, small (sometimes involuntary) movement out of place and then back again; a spasm.
• Action of spotting or seeking out a bird, especially a rare one.
• A stick with a hole in one end through which passes a loop, which can be drawn tightly over the upper lip or an ear of a horse and twisted to keep the animal quiet during minor surgery.
• A brief, contractile response of a skeletal muscle elicited by a single maximal volley of impulses in the neurons supplying it.
• The sudden narrowing almost to nothing of a vein of ore.
• A trip taken in order to observe a rare bird.
• couch grass (Elymus repens; a species of grass, often considered as a weed)

Verb

Verb Forms: twitched, twitching, twitches

• To move or pull with a sudden, slight jerk.
• make an uncontrolled, short, jerky motion
  • "his face is twitching"
• move with abrupt, seemingly uncontrolled motions
• toss with a sharp movement so as to cause to turn over in the air
• squeeze tightly between the fingers
• move or pull with a sudden motion
• To perform a twitch; spasm.
• To cause to twitch; spasm.
• To jerk sharply and briefly.
• To exert oneself.
• To spot or seek out a bird, especially a rare one.

Examples

• His eye began to TWITCH uncontrollably as his opponent played a triple-triple word.
• His fingers were nervously twitching.
• I saw a little twitch in the man's face, and knew he was lying.
• to twitch somebody's sleeve for attention

Synonyms

flip, jerk, nip, pinch, squeeze, tweet, twinge, twitching, vellication, barnacle

Anagrams of twitch