twister

See also: Twister

English

Etymology

From Middle English twyster, equivalent to twist +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtwɪstə(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtwɪstɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɪstə(ɹ)

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

twister (plural twisters)

1. One who twists.
   1. One whose occupation is to twist or join the threads of one warp to those of another, in weaving.
2. An instrument used in twisting or making twists.
   • 1653, John Wallis, Grammatica Linguæ Anglicanæ:

     He, twirling his twister, makes a twist of the twine.

3. A ball delivered with a twist, as in cricket or billiards.
4. (colloquial) A tornado.
5. (carpentry) A girder.
6. (dated) The inner part of the thigh, the proper place to rest upon when on horseback.
7. (British, colloquial) A crook, a villain.
   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter IX:

     “I don't know if it's my imagination, Kipper,” I said, “but something gives me the impression that at moment of going to press you aren't too sold on Bobbie.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Oh, I wouldn't say that. Apart from wishing I could throttle the young twister with my bare hands and jump on the remains with hobnailed boots, I don't feel much about her one way or the other.”

8. Any of species Tholymis tillarga of libellulid dragonfly, of tropical West Africa to Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.
9. The party game Twister, usually capitalized, or a variant.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:twister.

Derived terms

• arm-twister
• arm twister
• fossil twister
• jaw-twister
• knife twister
• knife-twister
• Labrador twister
• Mersenne twister
• titty twister
• tongue-twister

 

Translations

tornado

• Bulgarian: торнадо n (tornado), смерч m (smerč)
• Cherokee: ᎠᎦᎷᎦ (agaluga)
• Macedonian: торна́до n (tornádo)
• Maori: tūkauati

See also

• dust devil
• water spout
• willy-willy

Anagrams

• Witters, retwist, witters, writest

French

Etymology

From twist +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /twis.te/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

twister

1. (dance) to dance the twist, to twist

Conjugation

Conjugation of twister (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	twister
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	twistant /twis.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		twisté /twis.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	twiste /twist/	twistes /twist/	twiste /twist/	twistons /twis.tɔ̃/	twistez /twis.te/	twistent /twist/
	imperfect	twistais /twis.tɛ/	twistais /twis.tɛ/	twistait /twis.tɛ/	twistions /twis.tjɔ̃/	twistiez /twis.tje/	twistaient /twis.tɛ/
	past historic2	twistai /twis.te/	twistas /twis.ta/	twista /twis.ta/	twistâmes /twis.tam/	twistâtes /twis.tat/	twistèrent /twis.tɛʁ/
	future	twisterai /twis.tə.ʁe/	twisteras /twis.tə.ʁa/	twistera /twis.tə.ʁa/	twisterons /twis.tə.ʁɔ̃/	twisterez /twis.tə.ʁe/	twisteront /twis.tə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	twisterais /twis.tə.ʁɛ/	twisterais /twis.tə.ʁɛ/	twisterait /twis.tə.ʁɛ/	twisterions /twis.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	twisteriez /twis.tə.ʁje/	twisteraient /twis.tə.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	twiste /twist/	twistes /twist/	twiste /twist/	twistions /twis.tjɔ̃/	twistiez /twis.tje/	twistent /twist/
	imperfect2	twistasse /twis.tas/	twistasses /twis.tas/	twistât /twis.ta/	twistassions /twis.ta.sjɔ̃/	twistassiez /twis.ta.sje/	twistassent /twis.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	twiste /twist/	—	twistons /twis.tɔ̃/	twistez /twis.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “twister”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.