twit
1 Americanverb (used with object)
-
twits,
present (3rd person singular)
-
twitted,
past participle, past
-
twitting
present participle
noun
noun
noun
verb
noun
-
informal a nervous or excitable state
-
rare a reproach; taunt
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
twitsimple
-
twitssimple
-
have twittedperfect
-
has twittedperfect
-
am twittingprogressive
-
are twittingprogressive
-
is twittingprogressive
-
have been twittingperfect progressive
-
has been twittingperfect progressive
Past
-
twittedsimple
-
had twittedperfect
-
was twittingprogressive
-
were twittingprogressive
-
had been twittingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of twit1
First recorded in 1520–30; shortened variant of obsolete atwite, Middle English atwiten, Old English ætwītan “to taunt,” equivalent to æt- “at” + wītan “to blame”; see at 1
Origin of twit2
First recorded in 1810–20; origin uncertain
Origin of twit3
First recorded in 1920–25; perhaps originally noun derivative of twit 1, i.e., “one who twits others,” but altered in sense by association with expressive words with tw- ( twaddle, twat, twerp, etc.) and by rhyme with nitwit
Origin of twit4
First recorded in 1890–95; probably shortened from twitter
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:
Julian Sands is one of those blond, fair-skinned, blue-eyed English blokes who plays a twit as well or better than the next classically trained British actor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 18, 2023
Immediately after elevating himself to self-proclaimed chief twit, Musk shoved out chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, the leader of all things trust and safety.
From Slate ● Nov. 20, 2022
You’ll recall that in Season 1 of “Thrones,” the twit Lancel Lannister plied Robert with wine on a hunt, at Cersei’s behest, leaving the king vulnerable to the boar attack that ultimately killed him.
From New York Times ● Sep. 4, 2022
James' portrayal is undeniably delicate and compassionate, defying the common '90s portraiture of Anderson making her out to be a libidinous twit.
From Salon ● Feb. 3, 2022
“Go twit out the window and find Peter Pan, Tinkerbell,” Mary Anne snapped.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
Its inhabitants are those of “there will always be an England” England: stern vicars, timid curates, lords and earls, penniless titled wastrels living on allowances from their uncles, imperious aunts, upper-crust twits.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2025
In the song, by Michael Heitzman and Ilene Reid, Luker twits her image as a “spoonful of saccharine” but also punctures it.
From New York Times ● May 2, 2021
It’s just that not sending a thank-you note could signal that we haven’t received it or that we’re ill-mannered twits.
From Slate ● Sep. 21, 2020
By combining rapid-fire wordplay, historical japery, the subversion of middle-class mores and the flaying of upper-class twits, Monty Python “took silliness to renaissance levels,” Thompson said.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 22, 2020
She stalks away, muttering about twits who flaunt regulation.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
At a rally last month in Youngstown, with Vance sitting in the front row, Trump twitted the candidate for his devotion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2022
He twitted Dwight D. Eisenhower for his dullness.
From New York Times ● Oct. 26, 2021
But then, haven’t you always wanted to see George R. R. Martin twitted for not having completed his book series?
From New York Times ● Oct. 16, 2017
At Paris last week he twitted the U. S. clubmen on their distaste for water.
From Time Magazine Archive
And yet the advocate of temperance is twitted with his negligence of other causes which are perhaps as necessary; and he who pleads for foreign missions is reminded that we have heathen at home.
From The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I by Marcus Dods
Also not helping: the appearance of a cheap-laugh Charlton Heston, twitting his liberal friends who suddenly want a gun.
From New York Times ● Nov. 1, 2021
Before long, the poster boy for “Tory modernization”—and, it emerged, a passionate user of the textspeak “LOL,” which he used to mean “lots of love”—was twitting away himself.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 14, 2016
The triangle always felt like a deliberate twitting of Twilight's similar setup.
From The Verge ● Nov. 18, 2015
When he coined that phrase 60 years ago, New Yorker writer A. J. Liebling was twitting Chicagoans for their obsession with not measuring up to New York.
From Newsweek ● Feb. 27, 2011
The young man was famous among his acquaintances for a rather eccentric handwriting, and no one was fonder of twitting him about it than the maestro.
From Garcia the Centenarian And His Times Being a Memoir of Manuel Garcia's Life and Labours for the Advancement of Music and Science by M. (Malcolm) Sterling Mackinlay
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.
