twister
Americannoun
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a person or thing that twists.
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Informal. a whirlwind or tornado.
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Chiefly British Informal. a deceitful, unscrupulous person.
noun
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a swindling or dishonest person
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a person or thing that twists, such as a device used in making ropes
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an informal name for tornado
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a ball moving with a twisting motion
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of twister
1475–85; 1895–1900 twister for def. 2; twist + -er 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It was as if a twister had hit the terminal.
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026
Nearby residents described how “the storm roared and the house was shaking” when the twister spun through.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 27, 2025
But when a twister menaces their city, and Dad calls the boys while on the air, that goes viral and there’s actually a moral to the story.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025
While a twister didn’t end up touching down in San Francisco, one did just south in Scotts Valley in Santa Cruz County.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2024
“How did you—” Dimarion’s deep voice was barely audible in the howling of the twister.
From "The Reader" by Traci Chee
Six people died in Mississippi as tornadoes swept through that state and twisters killed another three in Alabama, including an 82-year-old woman.
From BBC ● Mar. 16, 2025
The twisters also overturned lorries, shut a highway near Dallas and left tens of thousands of people without power.
From BBC ● May 26, 2024
Much of Houston was battered by winds of speeds up to 100 miles per hour, rivaling speeds seen during Hurricane Ike, with “some twisters mixed in,” the city’s mayor, John Whitmire, said at the briefing.
From New York Times ● May 16, 2024
There were no serious injuries immediately reported, but city officials said in a news release that the twisters knocked out power to more than 20,000 people.
From Seattle Times ● May 7, 2024
I was really into tongue twisters and funny Shel Silverstein stuff back then, and I loved reciprocal reciting, surprising him with things he’d never heard.
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
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.
