verb
- to use the social networking service Twitter
proper noun
- American social networking service founded in 2006
- American social media company
noun
- chirping sound from a bird
verb
- make a bird-like chirping sound
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈtwɪ.tə/ / /ˈtwɪ.təɹ/ / /ˈtwɪtə/ / [ˈtʰwɪtʰə] / /ˈtwɪtɚ/
name
Etymology: From twitter (“to utter a succession of chirps”).
- An online social networking and microblogging service; officially known as X since 2023.
“There were, of course, many Twitters existing in parallel: Politics Twitter, Sports Twitter, Black Twitter, Weird Twitter. But Twitter and TV went together like extreme weather and marine predators.”
noun
Etymology: Origin unknown; possibly related to twine, twist, and twirl.
- A knot or other defect in a thread or yarn which hinders spinning or weaving; a twit.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English twitren, twiteren, from Old English *twiterian, from Proto-West Germanic *twitwiʀōn, from Proto-Germanic *twitwizōną (“to chirp; twitter”). Cognate with Low German twitteren (“to twitter”), German zwitzern, zwitschern (“to twitter”). Compare also Dutch kwetteren (“to twitter”), Danish kvidre (“to twitter”), Swedish kvittra (“to twitter”), dialectal Swedish tittra (“to twitter”).
- To utter a succession of chirps.
“The breezy call of incense-breathing Morn, / The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed,”
“The swallows, which had been tempted here in great numbers on account of the quantity of insects to be found in proximity to the wood, and had established themselves in the barn and under the eaves, were gambolling, circling, and twittering fearlessly about in the sunshine.”
- (of a person) To talk in an excited or nervous manner.
- To make the sound of a half-suppressed laugh; to titter; to giggle.
“Oh, the young handsom wenches, how they twitter'd, / When they but saw me shake my ware, and sing too!”
- To have a slight trembling of the nerves; to be excited or agitated.
- To twit; to reproach or upbraid.
“I have repented of it many’s the good time and oft. And if he was so good to forgive me a word spoken in haste or so, it doth not become such a one as you to twitter me. He was a husband to me, he was; and if ever I did make use of an ill word or so in a passion, I never called him rascal […]”
- Alternative form of Twitter.
“In addition to listing specific earmarks he finds the most reprehensible, McCain said he has been twittering the “top ten” most egregious”