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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“You dare block me on twitter... see my next move,” said one.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2024
“LD check twitter asap,” Magee texted Donovan, “and prob fire your barber.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2024
“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
“Soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” he wrote.
From New York Times ● Aug. 1, 2023
Jean Louise saw the glint of gold-rimmed spectacles slung across a sour face looking out from under a crooked wig, the twitter of a bony finger.
From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee
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
Loder then accurately predicted that Webb “might be searching his name on Twitter after the game, which is never a great look.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
That was before cable TV, the internet and Twitter.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026
Musk had bought the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022.
From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2026
Or a lame Twitter account where she retweets memes about the importance of hand washing.
From "Five Feet Apart" by Rachael Lippincott
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
And, indeed, there were some nervous twitters from the audience.
From "Looking for Alaska" by John Green
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
A robin on a low branch twittered a phrase and listened for another that answered him from beyond the farmhouse.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
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
On a spring day, with wildflowers blooming and birds twittering, the war can seem far away.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 17, 2022
Today’s readers, used to the twittering demotic of our age, may need to adjust to this titanic prose-poem’s leisurely, mandarin style.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 9, 2022
Dunwing hopped on the upturned chair, twittering with elation.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
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.
