to utter a succession of small, tremulous sounds, as a bird.
to talk lightly and rapidly, especially of trivial matters; chatter.
to titter; giggle.
to tremble with excitement or the like; be in a flutter.
Digital Technology. tweet.
(intr) (esp of a bird) to utter a succession of chirping sounds
(intr) to talk or move rapidly and tremulously
(intr) to giggle
her schoolmates twittered behind their desks
(tr) to utter in a chirping way
a twittering sound, esp of a bird
the act of twittering
a state of nervous excitement (esp in the phrase in a twitter )
1325–75; Middle English twiteren (v.); akin to German zwitschern
To twitter is to make a sound like a bird's trill or chirp. One of the nicest things about spring is the sound of birds as they twitter in the trees. Tweet tweet! When birds twitter, they make a staccato, musical chirping sound. You can call this sound itself a twitter too. Sometimes the word is used to describe a similar sound made by chattering humans. In the fourteenth century, the word was twiteren, developed from an imitation of the sound that twittering birds make. Twitter is also a social media website founded in 2006, on which people post 140-character bursts of information called tweets. Wonder where they got that idea.
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Altman responded on X, saying, “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2025
In response to the bid, Altman posted on Musk's social media platform X: "no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want."
From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2025
“And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk posted on the site.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 24, 2023
“And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk tweeted Sunday.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 24, 2023
I even heard the tentative twitter of birds.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
"The people that do the debriefs online, people who engage on Twitter, they should get us in a room and we tell them what we really, really want."
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
He’s even scored shorts for filmmakers he met through Twitter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
Twitter Democrats stuck by Platner, believing that he was a good avatar for working-class politics and that real voters wouldn’t care that he was rough around the edges.
From Slate ● Jul. 14, 2026
That was before cable TV, the internet and Twitter.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026
“I love what I did. But I don’t know who I am beyond the voice of a Twitter account and the evil face for a franchise.”
From "They Both Die at the End" by Adam Silvera
African wild dogs have thus evolved to stay under the radar, communicating in twitters best captured by wild dog ears, and steering clear of places where lions and hyenas — and now humans — abound.
From New York Times ● Jun. 20, 2022
Looking like a miniature killer whale, it twitters in flight.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 16, 2020
We startle a chunky little woodcock that's sheltering in the long grass and it twitters its indignation shrilly.
From BBC ● Jan. 2, 2020
In an age of 24/7 rolling news, blogs and twitters, we are on constant call wherever we are.
From Time ● Feb. 22, 2012
Gran twitters on for another five minutes, filling me in on mundane news: Heather has decided she wants to become a librarian.
From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman
As the orange ball of the sun rose on the horizon and birds twittered in the eucalypti, Baumgarten showed up—a fit, poised, attractive guy in his 40s.
From Golf Digest ● Apr. 2, 2020
The highlight was a rare 19th-century pocket watch, whose face was dotted with pearls and rubies and concealed a pop-up bird, slightly larger than a thumbnail, that twittered and sang.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 20, 2019
He twittered on about last night’s screening, then asked me to think of a piece to write for Vogue, so that’s a relief.
From MSNBC ● Nov. 15, 2017
He shows how observing the nesting larks that twittered above 'no man's land' and natural cycles such as the seasons gave a sense of renewal, and how animal 'troops' were inspirationally loyal.
From Nature ● Nov. 15, 2016
Yellow-wing twittered and pranced on his perch, excited as he watched her.
From "Son" by Lois Lowry
It helps nurture a slower, older way of life, with pocket flocks and modest dairy herds enclosed by thick hedgerows foaming with cow parsley and twittering songbirds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 11, 2026
On a long low wall alongside the Liangshui river in Beijing, a trader has several small cages with tiny twittering birds.
From BBC ● Dec. 28, 2025
Comical flocks of guinea fowl scampered back and forth, twittering.
From New York Times ● Jan. 6, 2021
Hansen’s Johanna, the young woman who’s under jealous Judge Turpin’s lock and key, is appropriately bird-like in her melodious twittering.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2019
The larks went up, twittering in the scented air above the down.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
