twig1

[twig] /twɪg/
noun
1.
a slender shoot of a tree or other plant.
2.
a small offshoot from a branch or stem.
3.
a small, dry, woody piece fallen from a branch:
a fire of twigs.
4.
Anatomy. one of the minute branches of a blood vessel or nerve.
Origin
before 950; Middle English; Old English twig, twigge, orig. (something) divided in two; akin to Old High German zwīg (German Zweig), Dutch twijg; compare Sanskrit dvikás double
Related forms
twigless, adjective
twiglike, adjective

twig2

[twig] /twɪg/
verb (used with object), twigged, twigging.
1.
to look at; observe:
Now, twig the man climbing there, will you?
2.
to see; perceive:
Do you twig the difference in colors?
3.
to understand.
verb (used without object), twigged, twigging.
4.
to understand.
Origin
1755-65; < Irish tuigim I understand, with English w reflecting the offglide before i of the velarized Irish t typical of southern Ireland; cf. dig2

twig3

[twig] /twɪg/
noun, British
1.
style; fashion.
Origin
1805-15; origin uncertain
Examples from the web for twig
  • Wanda then picked up a small twig, perched herself on a sapling branch, and poked her stick in a downward direction.
  • Traditionally, biologists have celebrated the trunk, branch and twig system of a tree as no accident.
  • He could scarce believe his eyes when he found a twig of an oak, which he plucked from the branch, become gold in his hand.
  • The disease is caused by a non-native fungus which is transmitted by small twig beetles.
  • At full size, all but a few squeeze through holes in the caterpillar's skin and spin a cocoon on a nearby twig or leaf.
  • You'll also need pliers for bending wire over twig bundles.
  • The only identifiable object amid shards of wood was a twig wreath with red flowers.
  • The only flowers are the icicles on the eaves and the beads on each twig.
  • Each twig is linked to other twigs through a shared ancestry.
  • However, we're not talking about a broken twig or a pebble dropped in a stream.
British Dictionary definitions for twig

twig1

/twɪɡ/
noun
1.
any small branch or shoot of a tree or other woody plant
2.
something resembling this, esp a minute branch of a blood vessel
Derived Forms
twiglike, adjective
Word Origin
Old English twigge; related to Old Norse dvika consisting of two, Old High German zwīg twig, Old Danish tvige fork

twig2

/twɪɡ/
verb (Brit, informal) twigs, twigging, twigged
1.
to understand (something)
2.
to find out or suddenly comprehend (something): he hasn't twigged yet
3.
(transitive) (rare) to perceive (something)
Word Origin
C18: perhaps from Gaelic tuig I understand
Word Origin and History for twig
n.

Old English twigge, from Proto-Germanic *twigan (cf. Middle Dutch twijch, Dutch twijg, Old High German zwig, German Zweig "branch, twig"), from the root of twi- (see twin), here meaning "forked" (as in Old English twisel "fork, point of division").

twig in Technology

Tree-Walking Instruction Generator.
A code generator language. ML-Twig is an SML/NJ variant.
["Twig Language Manual", S.W.K. Tijang, CS TR 120, Bell Labs, 1986].
(1995-01-31)