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Twist   Listen
noun
Twist  n.  
1.
The act of twisting; a contortion; a flexure; a convolution; a bending. "Not the least turn or twist in the fibers of any one animal which does not render them more proper for that particular animal's way of life than any other cast or texture."
2.
The form given in twisting. "(He) shrunk at first sight of it; he found fault with the length, the thickness, and the twist."
3.
That which is formed by twisting, convoluting, or uniting parts. Specifically:
(a)
A cord, thread, or anything flexible, formed by winding strands or separate things round each other.
(b)
A kind of closely twisted, strong sewing silk, used by tailors, saddlers, and the like.
(c)
A kind of cotton yarn, of several varieties.
(d)
A roll of twisted dough, baked.
(e)
A little twisted roll of tobacco.
(f)
(Weaving) One of the threads of a warp, usually more tightly twisted than the filling.
(g)
(Firearms) A material for gun barrels, consisting of iron and steel twisted and welded together; as, Damascus twist.
(h)
(Firearms & Ord.) The spiral course of the rifling of a gun barrel or a cannon.
(i)
A beverage made of brandy and gin. (Slang)
4.
A twig. (Obs.)
5.
Act of imparting a turning or twisting motion, as to a pitched ball; also, the motion thus imparted; as, the twist of a billiard ball.
6.
A strong individual tendency, or bent; a marked inclination; a bias; often implying a peculiar or unusual tendency; as, a twist toward fanaticism.
Gain twist, or Gaining twist (Firearms), twist of which the pitch is less, and the inclination greater, at the muzzle than at the breech.
Twist drill, a drill the body of which is twisted like that of an auger.
Uniform twist (Firearms), a twist of which the spiral course has an equal pitch throughout.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Twist" Quotes from Famous Books



... that of a cockatoo. Father Fromm, too, was waiting at the door, but could no longer run to meet his guests, for his left arm and leg were paralyzed: he leaned upon a long bony young man, who had spent much pains in trying to twist into a moustache by the aid of cunning unguents the few hairs on his upper lip, that would not under any circumstances consent to grow. It was easy to recognize Henrik in the young fellow who would have loved so much to smile, only that cursed ...
— Debts of Honor • Maurus Jokai

... "methinks we had best secure his arms with my plaid. Give me an end of it that we may twist it; so. Now lace it well under his arms while I bring it round his legs. There; he will not readily draw himself out of that noose. I will leave him in your care until I launch Ronald ...
— The Thirsty Sword • Robert Leighton

... stand by a horseman well mounted and handsomely clothed, who had upon the pommel of his saddle a bag, half open, with a string of green silk hanging out of it. I clapped my hand to the bag, concluding the silk-twist might be the string of a purse within: in the mean time a porter, with a load of wood upon his back, passed by on the other side of the horse so near, that the rider was forced to turn his head towards him, to avoid being hurt, or having his clothes torn by the wood. In that moment ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Complete • Anonymous

... Russe, but are brought round in order that one may help one's self. Just as one is struggling into conversation in defective German, a pike's head obtrudes itself over the left shoulder, and it is necessary to twist in one's seat and go through a gymnastic performance ...
— The Gourmet's Guide to Europe • Algernon Bastard

... murmurings. "Him I do not fear—it is the Russian, Verisschenzko, who fills me with hate—we have regard of him, he does not go unobserved, and if you allure him also among the rest, beyond the instructions which you had, then there will be unpleasantness for you, my little cat—thy Hans will twist his bear's neck, and thine also, if ...
— The Price of Things • Elinor Glyn

... turned it as a potter turns his clay. In Britain our mother tongue has crystallised long since into set forms and phrases. In America it has the plasticity of youth; it is fertile in novelty—nay, even in surprises. And Melissa knew how to twist it deftly into unexpected quips and incongruous conjunctions. Her talk ran on like a limpid brook, with a musical ripple playing ever on the surface. As for Bernard, he helped her about the ship like a brother, as she moved lightly ...
— Stories by English Authors: The Sea • Various

... devil for a self-conceited ass. One pleasure of this twist of intrigue is, to revenge me of that villain, who thought himself so essential, that, by Heaven! he forced himself on my privacy, and lectured me like a schoolboy. Hang the cold-blooded hypocritical vermin! If he mutters, I will have his nose slit as ...
— Peveril of the Peak • Sir Walter Scott

... disarranged, but if I could see you, I could explain by example what I cannot well do in words. To commence, a hairspring, when there is no power applied to balance from the jewel pin, should be, when pinned, just as free from any twist or cramping as it would be if lying flat and free on a smooth piece of glass, before it has been pinned at either end, and when it is pinned in the watch (at stud and collet) it should be thus free. To bring it thus requires demonstration that cannot be made on paper, unless you ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 664, September 22,1888 • Various

... patient a face in its misery that her blind tenderness seemed almost like an intentional cruelty. It was an intensity of feeling almost palpable, but Sylvie's mouth remained unburnt, though it removed itself with a pathetic little twist of disappointment. ...
— Snow-Blind • Katharine Newlin Burt

... from the remote corner an unmistakably sophisticated brier and a package of Yale Mixture, and proceeded to light up. He grinned again as his teeth clamped on the stem, and jerked it into the corner of his mouth with a practiced twist of his tongue. Then he picked up a small and well-thumbed book lying half hidden among his law books and papers, and glanced over ...
— Ainslee's, Vol. 15, No. 5, June 1905 • Various

... the thief was ever found," remarked David. "I know that my wrist was lame for a week from the twist that rascal gave it." ...
— Grace Harlowe's Senior Year at High School - or The Parting of the Ways • Jessie Graham Flower

... to some extent, overcome physical difficulties. By working at least five hours a day, and by reading the Cricket Field daily and nightly, I did learn to bowl a little, with a kind of twist. This, while it lasted, in a bowlerless country, was a delightful accomplishment. You got into much better sporting society than you deserved, and, in remote parts of the pastoral districts you were looked up to as one whose name had been in Bell's Life; we still had Bell's Life then. ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 102, February 27, 1892 • Various

... not be able to twist the neck of that detestable little pig-dog, Billy, before I go. Ach, Anton, you do not know how I hate the ...
— With Haig on the Somme • D. H. Parry

... which runs so freely over hedges and thickets in the southern counties, adorning the country in winter with snowy tufts of feathers, formed by its seed-vessels—a part of the stalk between two pair of the leaflets forms this twist; whilst in the sweet-scented garden-clematis, other parts of the stem give the support: but it is always by means of some portion or other of this member, that plants of this tribe are sustained in their rapid and extensive climbing. It is curious to observe what instinctive ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 454 - Volume 18, New Series, September 11, 1852 • Various

... at considerable angle. When a belt envelops two pulleys that are at a right angle to each other, two guide pulleys are needed in order that the belt may, in passing to each pulley, move in the same plane as the pulley rotates in, and the belt is in this case given what is termed a quarter twist. ...
— Mechanical Drawing Self-Taught • Joshua Rose

... slow in seizing the new idea and from that time on, until a period much later—that of the Gobelins under Louis XV—it was the fashion to introduce great and distracting interest into the border. Even the little galloon became a twist of two ribbons around a repeated flower, or a small reciprocal pattern, so covetous was design of all ...
— The Tapestry Book • Helen Churchill Candee

... you like. You may twist one another's heads off for what I care. He has had the satisfaction of putting you into a rage, ...
— The Irrational Knot - Being the Second Novel of His Nonage • George Bernard Shaw

... to remember Of us in the days to be? Whose faith was a trodden ember And even our doubt not free; Parliaments built of paper, And the soft swords of gold That twist like a waxen taper In the weak aggressor's hold; A hush around Hunger, slaying A city of serfs unfed; What shall we leave for a saying To praise us when we are dead? But men shall remember the Mountain That broke its forest chains, And men shall ...
— Poems • G.K. Chesterton

... twist his neck the best he could and look. Then with a glad cry he released his hold on the friendly root ...
— With Trapper Jim in the North Woods • Lawrence J. Leslie

... descend with impetuous force, as if with their overwhelming numbers to drive us into the sea. An old sea-lion led the van—a fierce monster, who looked capable of competing with all of us together. So he might, if he had possessed legs instead of fins or flappers, the latter only enabling him to twist and turn and slide down the inclined plane on which we stood into the sea. On the beasts came in dense masses, roaring and snarling. I certainly did look for a moment at the boats, and wish myself safe back ...
— Old Jack • W.H.G. Kingston

... comfortable." As he spoke, the invalid waved his hand towards a chair near his own, and Nan seated herself upon it in silence, glancing timidly in his face. This dumbness was appalling. She racked her brains to think of something to say, but no ideas were forthcoming; she could only twist her fingers in embarrassment, and wait ...
— A Houseful of Girls • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... breach gave the alarm whistle: some people were, doubtless, drawing near. It was necessary to finish. Alexandre knotted the handkerchief round the unhappy woman's neck, while Richard with his fist forced her shriek back into her throat. Red madness fell upon them, they both began to twist and tighten the handkerchief, and dragged the poor creature over the muddy ground until she stirred no more. Then, as the whistle sounded again, they took the bag, left the body there with the handkerchief around the neck, and galloped, all four of them, as far as the Grenelle ...
— Fruitfulness - Fecondite • Emile Zola

... version of liberty was a sort of aristocratic anarchism in Byron and Shelley; but though in Victorian times it faded into much milder prejudices and much more bourgeois crotchets, England retained from that twist a certain odd separation and privacy. England became much more of an island than she had ever been before. There fell from her about this time, not only the understanding of France or Germany, but to her own long and yet lingering disaster, ...
— The Victorian Age in Literature • G. K. Chesterton

... we are met by this experience: that when we honestly try to make the tree good that its fruit may be good we come full front up to this, that there is a streak in us, a stain, a twist—call it anything you like—like a black vein through a piece of Parian marble, or a scratch upon a mirror, which streak or twist baffles our effort to make ourselves righteous. I am not going, if I can help it, to exaggerate the facts of the case. The ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John • Alexander Maclaren

... fretful, and very loud and clear, "because she is taking a pattern of the little girl's hat and trying to twist hers into that shape! I told her ...
— The Strange Cases of Dr. Stanchon • Josephine Daskam Bacon

... habit break?" As you did that habit make. As you gathered, you must lose; As you yielded, now refuse. Thread by thread the strands we twist Till they bind us, neck and wrist; Thread by thread the patient hand Must untwine, ere free we stand. As we builded, stone by stone, We must toil, unhelped, alone, Till the ...
— De La Salle Fifth Reader • Brothers of the Christian Schools

... expected they would see me, and I became sick with terror at the thought of meeting all those pale, flashing eyes. But from this I was happily saved; no one appeared to notice me, and they all passed me by without as much as a twist or turn of the head, their feet keeping time to one everlasting and monotonous tramp, tramp, tramp. I got up and watched until the last of them had turned the bend of the Pass, and the sheen of his weapons and trappings could no longer be seen; then I remounted my boulder and wondered ...
— Scottish Ghost Stories • Elliott O'Donnell

... ploughmen's heads the bicker-cut for a penny, and the hair into the bargain for stuffing chairs with; and between us, who knows—many rottener ship has come to land—but that some genty Miss, fond of plays, poems, and novels, may fancy our Benjie when he is giving her red hair a twist with the torturing irons, and run away with him, almost whether he will or not, in a ...
— The Life of Mansie Wauch - tailor in Dalkeith • D. M. Moir

... corruption of "by Our Lady") before or after any part of speech whatever, as an expletive to drive home meaning to reluctant minds. It is an expression unwelcome on the drawing-room table. But, briefly, what Mr. Salter had so sworn to do was to twist his wife's nose off with his finger and thumb. And he did not seem unlikely to carry out his threat, as Livermore's tenantry lacked spirit or will to interpose, and did nothing but shriek in panic when feminine, and show discretion when masculine; mostly affecting indifference, ...
— Somehow Good • William de Morgan

... stood holding him, Mr. Pike rapidly took stock of his accomplishments, and formulated a program. With a sudden twist he cleared himself, sprang away from the two, and jumped behind a tree. One soldier started to the right of the tree and the other to the left, so as to close in upon him and retake him. This was what he wanted, for he had them "spread," and ...
— The Slim Princess • George Ade

... doorway; the crowd had but a glimpse, yet they cheered again. Rischenheim's hand was clasped in a firm grip; he passed unwillingly but helplessly through the door. Bernenstein followed; the door was shut. Anton faced round on Helsing, a scornful twist on ...
— Rupert of Hentzau - From The Memoirs of Fritz Von Tarlenheim: The Sequel to - The Prisoner of Zenda • Anthony Hope

... Cockburn, who had come from behind the door, winked significantly at Waller, and creeping on all fours behind McFudd, just as that gentleman was about lifting his legs aloft, swept him off his feet by a twist of his arm, and deposited him on the small of his back next to Oliver, his head resting against the wall. There Waller stood over him with a chair, which he threatened to turn over him upside down and sit on if the prostrate Irishman moved ...
— The Fortunes of Oliver Horn • F. Hopkinson Smith

... He says he's perfectly certain he didn't hurt her in the least, but I think he must have got down to a nerve or something without knowing it. Anyhow Madame—she couldn't use her hands you know—gave a sort of twist, got her foot against his chest and kicked him clean across ...
— Lady Bountiful - 1922 • George A. Birmingham

... the picture of the noble lady, for she's the exact imitation; but I never can get the land fog out of my eyes when I'm ashore. That's a sorry looking bit of paper, your honor, but it's what'll buy more than one twist of pig-tail." ...
— Natalie - A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds • Ferna Vale

... in his chair and looked at her, looked at least at the back of her long neck, and the twist of her golden hair and the occasional heave of ...
— Ladies Must Live • Alice Duer Miller

... the way, will you!" he said; and as the road was clear he made a spring at Roylance, but suddenly gave his head a twist, tripped over the new sea-chest that was in the ...
— Syd Belton - The Boy who would not go to Sea • George Manville Fenn

... it and be a man," said Brennan. He put a hand on Jimmy's shoulder. Jimmy flung it aside with a quick twist and a turn. "Please, Jimmy," pleaded Brennan. Jimmy left his chair and buried his face in a corner ...
— The Fourth R • George Oliver Smith

... he never preaches, never seeks to give a moral twist to his observations of nature, but I recall a few instances where he does do a bit of moralizing; for example, when he speaks of the calmness and dignity of the hawk when attacked by crows or kingbirds: "He seldom deigns to notice ...
— Our Friend John Burroughs • Clara Barrus

... the white house on the hill. Carriages containing relations, who tried vainly to twist their faces into an expression of the grief they were supposed to ...
— Soap-Bubble Stories - For Children • Fanny Barry

... his hand and, picking up a long-stemmed rose from the table, began idly to twist it in his fingers. "And that was the end. From then on the matter was simple. It was like a duel between a trained swordsman and a novice; only it wasn't really a duel at all, for one of the antagonists ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1917 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various

... stretched himself. Then he flew up from the book with a hissing sound, like a radiant streak. Once more he turned around toward the scholar, and his head had already grown to the size of a barrel, while his body must have been a full fathom in length. He gave one more snaky twist, and then there was a terrible crash of thunder and the dragon went ...
— The Chinese Fairy Book • Various

... to cry out and arouse his people, but his lips refused to utter a word. He next tried to run, but he could not move his feet, and his legs seemed to twist themselves around each other. After several attempts he succeeded in taking one or two steps, when he again began to stagger and gasp for breath. It was some moments before he made another attempt to move, ...
— The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories • Leo Tolstoy

... chaffing," said Dorothy, beginning to feel a little provoked; "it's only because you twist the things I say the ...
— The Admiral's Caravan • Charles E. Carryl

... Taillefer would have only his daughter left; he would want to leave his money to some one or other; an absurd notion, but it is only human nature, and he is not likely to have any more children, as I know. Victorine is gentle and amiable; she will soon twist her father round her fingers, and set his head spinning like a German top by plying him with sentiment! She will be too much touched by your devotion to forget you; you will marry her. I mean to play Providence for you, and Providence is to do my will. I have a friend whom I have ...
— Father Goriot • Honore de Balzac

... astonishing wonder is that none of the unhappy wretches suffered sun-stroke or went crazy while bound up in this manner, because the sun's heat intensely aggravated the agonies of thirst. But the sun-bath consummated Major Bach's greatest ambition. It caused the victim to writhe and twist more frantically, which in turn forced him to shriek and ...
— Sixteen Months in Four German Prisons - Wesel, Sennelager, Klingelputz, Ruhleben • Henry Charles Mahoney

... the fire, than at the ends, so that they would naturally bend of their own weight; but the soldiers, to increase the damage, would take tongs and, one or two men at each end of the rail, carry it with force against the nearest tree and twist it around, thus leaving rails forming bands to ornament the forest trees of Georgia. All this work was going on at the same time, there being a sufficient number of men detailed for that purpose. Some piled the logs ...
— Memoirs of Three Civil War Generals, Complete • U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, P. H. Sheridan

... money vor the ceaekes, But wer so lwoth to put it down As if a penny wer a poun'. Then up come zidelen Sammy Heaere, That's fond o' Poll, an' she can't bear, A-holden out his girt scram vist, An' ax'd her, wi' a grin an' twist, To have zome nuts; an' she, to hide Her laughen, turn'd her head azide, An' answer'd that she'd rather not, But Nancy mid. An' Nan, so hot As vier, zaid 'twer quite enough Vor Poll to answer vor herzuf: She had a tongue, she zaid, ...
— Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect • William Barnes

... parallelogramical city, such as are Philadelphia and the new portion of New York, is from its very nature odious to me. I know that much may be said in its favor—that drainage and gas- pipes come easier to such a shape, and that ground can be better economized. Nevertheless, I prefer a street that is forced to twist itself about. I enjoy the narrowness of Temple Bar and the misshapen curvature of Picket Street. The disreputable dinginess of Hollowell Street is dear to me, and I love to thread my way up the Olympic ...
— Volume 1 • Anthony Trollope

... East and West, And South and North, let all be there Where he who pitied the oppressed Swings out in sun and air. Let not a Democratic hand The grisly hangman's task refuse; There let each loyal patriot stand, Awaiting slavery's command, To twist the ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... Thief, swearing vengeance. But the knot hole was too small; he couldn't get in. Twist and turn and push and threaten as he would, he could not get in; and Little Thief sat just inside ...
— Secret of the Woods • William J. Long

... shelter of that shed, but the Tocsin could, and, once inside, throwing away her cloak and wig, "Silver Mag" would disappear, and after that there was the Sanctuary, and then her own brave wits. There came a queer twist to Jimmie Dale's lips, and then a shrug of his shoulders again. It was not likely to be the ending to the night that he had thought it might be when sitting there in Bristol Bob's only a few ...
— The Further Adventures of Jimmie Dale • Frank L. Packard

... the contagion of patronage, and decoyed a poor fellow named Blackett into poetry; but he died during the operation, leaving one child and two volumes of "Remains" utterly destitute. The girl, if she don't take a poetical twist, and come forth as a shoemaking Sappho, may do well; but the "tragedies" are as ricketty as if they had been the offspring of an Earl or a Seatonian prize poet. The patrons of this poor lad are certainly answerable ...
— Byron's Poetical Works, Vol. 1 • Byron

... to Art, and to the most advantage, Hold your Thumb on the broad side of the Handle, and your Fingers quite round it; hold it in this manner firm and fair; so that your Adversary, with the least sudden beat or twist, may not force it out of your hand, which the hazard in holding it loosely may occasion ...
— The School of Recreation (1696 edition) • Robert Howlett

... lady might never know what become of it and cry and make a fuss as she did about the last. Then seeing that she was finished, with her leg half chewed off, I shot her, or rather I didn't shoot her as well as I should, for the beggar gave a twist as I fired, and now she's bit me right through the hand. I only hopes you won't have to pay my widow for it, Squire, under the Act, as foxes' bites is uncommon poisonous, especially when they've been a-eating of ...
— The Mahatma and the Hare • H. Rider Haggard

... should be as perfect as possible). EAR ... EEL makes a weak In. by S. to some persons, but it would make a much more vivid first impression to most persons to deal with them in this way: EAR ... (w)ring ... twist ... wriggle ... EEL. But "Bivouac ... aqueduct" is a perfect In. by S. as to the last syllable of the former and the first syllable of the latter, since those syllables are pronounced exactly alike. We may connect Bivouac to Rain thus: "Bivouac ... ...
— Assimilative Memory - or, How to Attend and Never Forget • Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)

... following, for she was a dancer of fame and could twist her lithe body into enticing shapes. She might have married again, but she was so scornful of common men that none dare ask for her. Also the incident of the iron pot was not forgotten, and D'riti went swaying through the village—she walked from her hips, gracefully—a ...
— Bones - Being Further Adventures in Mr. Commissioner Sanders' Country • Edgar Wallace

... best grass, and their places changed often. The ropes to which they are attached should be about forty feet long; the picket-pins, of iron, fifteen inches long, with ring and swivel at top, so that the rope shall not twist as the animal feeds around it; and the pins must be firmly driven into ...
— The Prairie Traveler - A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions • Randolph Marcy

... get a reaping-hook and scoop That gullet out with which you gorged my tripe. But I'll to Cleon: he'll soon serve his writs; He'll twist it out of you to-day, ...
— The Frogs • Aristophanes

... ground into pulp again. Having been cut, the paper must be counted and folded. Then it is packed into bundles for shipment. The young lady who does the counting and folding is the wonder of the mill. Giving the sheets a twist with one hand so as to spread open the edges, she gallops the fingers of the other hand among them; and as quickly as you or I could count three, she counts twenty-four and folds the quire. She takes four sheets with a ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 363, December 16, 1882 • Various

... n. A cable tie, esp. the sawtoothed, self-locking plastic kind that you can remove only by cutting (as opposed to a random twist of wire or a twist tie or one of those humongous metal clip frobs). Small ...
— THE JARGON FILE, VERSION 2.9.10

... Leary had been the recipient of unlimited praise upon the ingenuity and the uniqueness expressed in his costume. He had not represented a Little Lord Fauntleroy or a Buster Brown or a Boy Scout or a Juvenile Cadet or a Midshipmite or an Oliver Twist. There had been three Boy Scouts present and four Buster Browns and of sailor-suited persons there had been no end, really. But Mr. Leary had chosen to appear as Himself at the Age of Three; and, as the complimentary comment proved, his get-up had reflected credit not alone upon its wearer ...
— The Life of the Party • Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb

... behind-hander, for my ground's always ready, and in go the greens when you all turn spade for the bean vines. Are you a-looking for a little job of plowing, Mr. Mark? I'd put Mr. Rucker at it, but he give his left ankle a twist yestidy and have had to be kinder quiet, a-setting on the back porch or maybe a-hobbling over ...
— Rose of Old Harpeth • Maria Thompson Daviess

... persisted Clover. "She has got some sort of queer twist in her mind regarding me, and I can't think what it is. It doesn't really matter, and very likely she'll get over it presently; but I'm sorry about it. It would be so pleasant all to be good friends together up here, where there are so ...
— In the High Valley - Being the fifth and last volume of the Katy Did series • Susan Coolidge

... you lawyers can, with ease, Twist your words and meanings as you please; That language, by your skill made pliant, Will bend to favor every client; That 'tis the fee directs the sense, To make out either ...
— Life and Literature - Over two thousand extracts from ancient and modern writers, - and classified in alphabetical order • J. Purver Richardson

... the negroes lying with their faces to the ground. Instantly he grasped each by the wrist and with an inward twist he brought forth cried for mercy. It was a trick he had learned in college, that, by drawing the arm behind the back and twisting, a boy could ...
— The Story of the Soil • Cyril G. Hopkins

... thing. In fact I think the Smith nut-cakes are lighter and have a more artistic twist to 'em and don't devour so ...
— Samantha on the Woman Question • Marietta Holley

... exclaimed Nora, giving her shoulders a little impatient twist. "I may have had the opportunity already, ...
— A True Friend - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

... wild roses. Over Rosalie's head there was a lark singing in mid-air, and by the side of the path grew the small pink flowers of the wild convolvulus. Rosalie could not help stopping to gather some sprays of this, and to twist them round her hat. It was so many months since she had seen any flowers; and they brought the old days back to her, when Toby used to put her down from the caravan, that she might gather the flowers ...
— A Peep Behind the Scenes • Mrs. O. F. Walton

... conditions and hours of labor. The obstinate cases of unwillingness to work must be cured by compulsory labor in farm colonies or on public works; most such cases respond to intelligent treatment and cease to be troublesome when some physical or moral twist has been remedied. The waste of income in self-indulgence of one form or other is more difficult to deal with; but the law can justly forbid the wage-earner from squandering upon himself money needed by wife and children, and direct that a due proportion of his wages be paid directly to the ...
— Problems of Conduct • Durant Drake

... stove and moved over to the clothes, picking up the smallest pair of child's knickers imaginable. They were black with dirt, and he held them up before Sunny's wondering eyes and smiled pathetically. "Ridic'lous small," he said, with an odd twist of his pale lips. "Pore little gal." Then his scanty eyebrows drew together perplexedly, and that curious expression of helplessness that was his crept into his eyes. "Them frills an' bits git me some," he said in a puzzled way. "Y'see, I ain't never used an iron much, ...
— The Twins of Suffering Creek • Ridgwell Cullum

... the cultivators of the blackberry in various parts of New Jersey noticed that the ends of the young, growing canes, in summer, would occasionally curl, twist about, and often assume a singular, fasciated form, resulting in an entire check to their growth. The leaves on these infested shoots did not die and fall off, but merely curled up, sometimes assuming a deeper green than the healthy leaves on the same stalk. At the approach ...
— Success With Small Fruits • E. P. Roe

... arisen from my layings-out in clothes for myself and wife; viz. for her about 12l. and for myself 55l., or thereabouts: having made myself a velvet cloak, two new cloth skirts, black, plain both; a new shag gown, trimmed with gold buttons and twist, with a new hat, and silk tops for my legs, and many other things, being resolved, henceforward to go like myself. And also two perriwiggs, one whereof costs me 3l. and the other 40s. I have worn ...
— The Diary of Samuel Pepys • Samuel Pepys

... often wears when at home is turbaned upon his head, causing him to present a somewhat Turkish appearance; and as, when turning a particularly complicated corner in an air, it is his artistic habit to hold his tongue between his teeth, twist his head in sympathy with the elaborate fingering, and involuntarily lift one foot higher and higher from the floor as some skittish note frantically dodges to evade him, his general musical aspect at his own hearth is that of a partially Oriental ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 18, July 30, 1870 • Various

... tensely against the corners of the trunk, he warded off as best he could the shocks of the skilled baggage-breakers along the route. Again and again, an unexpected twist would bang his throbbing head against the adamantine sides, and with a wince, a sharp, in-drawn breath, he would hold himself "together" for one ...
— The Ghost Breaker - A Novel Based Upon the Play • Charles Goddard

... Henry, who certainly had a fair chance to observe the effects of slavery, says, "If a man be in chains, he droops and bows to the earth, because his spirits are broken; but let him twist the fetters off his legs and he will ...
— An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans • Lydia Maria Child

... twist thy words! I'll thank thee for it. Quick, quick! The king draws nigh.—Let ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VI. • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

... cunning fox digs a kennel with two holes to go out and come in at, that he may not be either surprised or trapped by the huntsmen. The reptiles are of another make. They curl, wind, shrink, and stretch by the springs of their muscles; they creep, twist about, squeeze, and hold fast the bodies they meet in their way; and easily slide everywhere. Their organs are almost independent one on the other; so that they still live when they are cut into two. The long-legged birds, says Cicero, are also long-necked ...
— The Existence of God • Francois de Salignac de La Mothe- Fenelon

... thoroughly brow-beaten the states, and having soundly lectured Buckhurst—as a requital for his successful efforts to bring about a more wholesome condition of affairs—she gave the envoy a parting stab, with this postscript;—"There is small disproportion," she said "twist a fool who useth not wit because he hath it not, and him that useth it not when it should avail him." Leicester, too, was very violent in his attacks upon Buckhurst. The envoy had succeeded in reconciling Hohenlo ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... take one of the hairs and double it in the middle, hold the double between the thumb and fore-finger of the left hand, letting the two ends hang from the under side of the thumb, and keeping the hairs between the thumb and finger, about a third of an inch apart. Now proceed to twist the two hairs toward the end of the finger, letting them twist together as the loop emerges on the upper ...
— Camp Life in the Woods and the Tricks of Trapping and Trap Making • William Hamilton Gibson

... moment that Ivan, quicker than the others, seized the rifle in his two hands. He gave a quick twist and jerked the weapon from the hands of his opponent. The latter staggered back and his hand dropped to his belt. But before he could draw a revolver, Ivan had raised his newly won rifle and brought it down on the Bulgarian's head. The man dropped ...
— The Boy Allies in the Balkan Campaign - The Struggle to Save a Nation • Clair W. Hayes

... to Professor Rowley, of University College, Bristol, whom I have constantly consulted while preparing this issue of Dr. Bliss's edition. If one may be allowed a slight twist of a Shakspearian phrase, I would say of such help as his—"Ripeness is all." It is this quality that makes one at least of Professor Rowley's friends ...
— Microcosmography - or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters • John Earle

... of Ilium, dragg'd 540 So cruelly toward the fleet of Greece, O'erwhelm'd with sudden darkness at the view Fell backward, with a sigh heard all around. Far distant flew dispersed her head-attire, Twist, frontlet, diadem, and even the veil 545 By golden Venus given her on the day When Hector led her from Eetion's house Enrich'd with nuptial presents to his home. Around her throng'd her sisters of the house ...
— The Iliad of Homer - Translated into English Blank Verse • Homer

... turned, mounted the step of the creaky carriage, and gave his whip that peculiar twist that only a born master of horses ...
— The Shield of Silence • Harriet T. Comstock

... dip net. This great pocket of cord, fit to hold perhaps a bushel or more, is swung from the boom above, and lowered into the midst of the catch. Two men in the boat seize its iron rim, and with a twist and shove scoop it full of mackerel. "Yo-heave-oh" sing out the men at the halliards, and the net rises into the air, and swings over the deck of the schooner. Two men perched on the rail seize the collar and, turning it inside out, drop the whole finny load upon the deck. "Fine, fat, ...
— American Merchant Ships and Sailors • Willis J. Abbot

... flirt, who had a thousand chorus girls on his staff, and could give the Sultan of Turkey cards and spades and little casino in the harem game. "You will go along, won't you, bub?" and he gave my thumb another twist, and I said, "You bet your life, but I won't do a thing to you and Leopold before we get out of the Belgian hare belt," and so here we ...
— Peck's Bad Boy Abroad • George W. Peck

... you would avoid fire or a precipice,"—which I think is a sensible observation. The Germans are certainly profounder than we. If the slightest suspicion arises in your breast that all is not right with him, muzzle him and lead him in a string (common packthread will do; he don't care for twist) to Mr. Hood's, his quondam master, and he'll take him in at any time. You may mention your suspicion, or not, as you like, or as you think it may wound, or not, Mr. H.'s feelings. Hood, I know, will wink at a few follies in Dash, in consideration of his former ...
— The Best Letters of Charles Lamb • Charles Lamb

... sleep, but not before I had awakened Jock, who did grunt, after the uncourteous, pig-like manner of a suddenly wakened man, be-thump his pillow as though 't had been an anvil, and in turning over, twist the bedclothes half off of me, so that what with the cold (it being then the fall o' th' year), and what with my distress, I ...
— A Brother To Dragons and Other Old-time Tales • Amelie Rives

... the wheel a twist, cut a fine curve around the windmill and stopped before the house with as near a flourish as a seven-passenger automobile loaded from tail-lamp to ...
— The Heritage of the Sioux • B.M. Bower

... but screamed: "And he has mutilated—tortured my baby. There are deep wounds in her little back, and the doctor said, only last night, that they were made by a sharp instrument. And he must have tried to warp and twist the mind of my child, or put her through frightful experiences; for he has taught her to swear—horribly—and last night at bedtime, when I told her the story of Elisha and the bears and the children, she burst out into the most ...
— The Wreck of the Titan - or, Futility • Morgan Robertson

... the necessity of taking any sides in this civilized warfare. That's one reason I am such a go-between for Uncle Peter and the League, I am making votes for my man, so I consider it all right for me never to deliver any of their messages to each other as they are given to me, but to twist them ...
— The Tinder-Box • Maria Thompson Daviess

... Age, thirty odd. Hair, dark with a disposition to wave. Eyes, brown, merry and set wide apart. Well marked brows. Nose of medium length and slightly crooked to the left. Short upper lip. Firm mouth with an upward twist at the corners. A strong square chin. A habit of holding the head slightly at an angle. Quick way of speaking and walks with a springy step. Stands with one hand on his ...
— Men of Affairs • Roland Pertwee

... but the pressure on his back was not lessened. Instead, he felt a snaky hand slip down his arm, seize his fingers and twist the gun away. ...
— Boy Scouts on Motorcycles - With the Flying Squadron • G. Harvey Ralphson

... look like a bride, Margaret," said I. "Surely, you must think Mrs. Linwood is going to have a party to-night. Never mind,—we will all admire you as much as if you were a bride. Let me twist some of these white rosebuds in your hair, to complete ...
— Ernest Linwood - or, The Inner Life of the Author • Caroline Lee Hentz

... life's peace secure In houses and in land? Go, read the fairy lure To twist a cord of sand; Lodge stones upon the sky, Hold water in a sieve, Nor give such tales the lie, ...
— Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of England • Robert Bell

... on the chest with my bare hand, so that he fell on the far side of the room. "Let that be a warning," I told him, when he had recovered, some time later. "If ye have any more tricks, try them for, not on, me." Which I claim to be a neat twist of words. ...
— The Lord of Death and the Queen of Life • Homer Eon Flint

... other sign of irony than a slight involuntary twist of the lips, Jules answered: "Madame sends word that she is not going home; and she places her carriage at the gentlemen's disposal if they will allow me ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola

... The screw may twist and the rack may turn, And men may bleed and men may burn, O'er London town and its golden hoard I keep my silent ...
— The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan - The 14 Gilbert And Sullivan Plays • William Schwenk Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan

... "Curious about Dalton; peculiar twist to his mental machinery somewhere." Sandford blows a cloud of smoke and eyes it meditatively. "Leaving business that way, chopping it all to pieces in fact; and just ...
— A Breath of Prairie and other stories • Will Lillibridge

... Bertie serenely, with a nonchalant twist to his mustaches. "Anything's possible. If I do now, it strikes me there are vast ...
— Under Two Flags • Ouida [Louise de la Ramee]

... county of Erie, or elsewhere, one who could raise a doubt, or a particle of a doubt, about the meaning of this provision of the Constitution. He may act as witnesses do, sometimes, on the stand. He may wriggle, and twist, and say he cannot tell, or cannot remember. I have seen many such efforts in my time, on the part of witnesses, to falsify and deny the truth. But there is no man who can read these words of the Constitution ...
— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster

... found more entertaining than that produced by the Host of the "Tabard," who accompanied the party all the way. He called the pilgrims together and spoke as follows: "My merry masters all, now that it be my turn to give your brains a twist, I will show ye a little piece of craft that will try your wits to their full bent. And yet methinks it is but a simple matter when the doing of it is made clear. Here be a cask of fine London ale, and ...
— The Canterbury Puzzles - And Other Curious Problems • Henry Ernest Dudeney

... said Lydia, in a passion to tell the truth at a moment when it seemed to her they were all willing, for one result or another, to turn and twist it. "I gave it back to Jeff so he could carry it to you and say, 'Here it is. I've paid you a lot of ...
— The Prisoner • Alice Brown

... wire connections in here. I can feel it now with my fingers. A wire has broken. If I could twist ...
— Joe Strong on the Trapeze - or The Daring Feats of a Young Circus Performer • Vance Barnum

... of the heart and mind of the other than she cared to say in plain words; but, as a woman, she would naturally abide by the rules of the game. In the smaller games of life it is woman's privilege, indeed, to stretch and twist all rules to suit her own convenience, but in this great game of love, woman stands by woman and the womanly rules of the game—unless, indeed, she craves the stakes for herself, in ...
— Pearl of Pearl Island • John Oxenham

... has recently halted, I have sometimes seen the bark peeled curiously off the twigs, as though it had been done in mere dalliance. In the same way in eating grass the elephant selects a tussac which he draws from the ground by a dexterous twist of his trunk, and nothing can be more graceful than the ease with which, before conveying it to his mouth, he beats the earth from its roots by striking it gently upon his fore-leg. A coco-nut he first rolls under foot, to detach the strong outer bark, then stripping off with his trunk ...
— Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon • J. Emerson Tennent

... strange gods, and writing strange characters from right to left. The odd triviality of the last detail, its unworthiness of the sentiment of the passage, leaves the reader checked, what sets out as a fine stroke of imagination dwindles down to a sort of literary conceit. And this puerile twist, by the way, is all the poorer, when it is considered that the native writing is really from left to right, and only takes the other direction in a foreign, that is to say, a Persian alphabet. And so in other places, ...
— Critical Miscellanies, Volume I (of 3) - Essay 4: Macaulay • John Morley

... wooden wall. Two planks were badly joined, and so loose that I was certain I could easily detach them. I searched about for some tool, and I found one in the leg of a small bed which stood in the corner. I forced the end of this into the chink of the planks, and I was about to twist them outward when the sound of rapid footsteps caused me to ...
— The Adventures of Gerard • Arthur Conan Doyle

... commence breaking down the branches of the trees, selecting those which are most agreeable to their palates, and arranging them in two enormous faggots. When they have collected as much as they think they require, they make withies and bind up their two faggots, and then twist another to connect the two, so as to hang them over their backs down on each side, and having thus made their provision, they return home; the keeper may or may not be present during this performance. All depends ...
— Olla Podrida • Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)

... to draw it out until every portion of it is as strong as every other—a pretty little conundrum! It is the drawing, twisting, and doubling which makes the thread first uniform and then strong. Try working-out devices that shall do all these things—devices that shall twist and then double without untwisting, for example. You'll find it ...
— Carl and the Cotton Gin • Sara Ware Bassett

... stammering savoured of the bombast of a man who had no desire to serve me, but who, not daring to break his word, used all his wits to twist and overrate the little he could not hinder himself from saying. This letter was simply for Grimaldo, as the letter of M. le Duc d'Orleans was simply for the King of Spain. The last was even weaker than the first. It was like a design in pencil nearly ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, Complete • Duc de Saint-Simon

... its mode of growth is in the attachment of the stem; somewhat thick, fleshy, and juicy, coming from the side of the pileus like the handle of a fan, it looks as if some one had taken hold of the cap and given it a partial twist to the right or to the left, as may be seen in Figure 317. Another peculiarity I have noticed in this species consists of the nerve-like lines, or veinlets, radiating from the stem and streaking the upper surface of the cap. The taste, ...
— The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise - Its Habitat and its Time of Growth • M. E. Hard

... harder, until I pressed down the knife and found that I could not extract it with a straight pull! I lifted the bowl of rice, and could with impunity swing it round over my head just as one uses an Indian club. To extract the knife one has to twist the handle slightly, when it comes out ...
— Indian Conjuring • L. H. Branson

... thrust out his left arm. It was quickly seized, but before the assailant could twist it, Orme struck out with the wrench, which was in his right hand. Swift though the motion was, his opponent threw up his free arm and partly broke the force of the blow. But the wrench reached his forehead nevertheless, and with a little moan, he dropped ...
— The Girl and The Bill - An American Story of Mystery, Romance and Adventure • Bannister Merwin

... infinite manifestations. I suppose our souls twist the breath of the spirit to our own likenesses in the same ...
— Jewel Weed • Alice Ames Winter

... wellnigh impossible to distinguish the smooth surface of the water from the ice, and the ice from the snow-covered land. Everything is so strangely still and dead. The sea rises and falls with each twist of the fjord through the silent land of mists. Now we have open water ahead, now more ice, and it is impossible to make sure which it is. Is this Taimur Strait? Are we getting through? A whole year is at stake! ... No! here we stop—nothing but ice ahead. ...
— Farthest North - Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship 'Fram' 1893-1896 • Fridtjof Nansen

... and as a matter of fact there was not much that they had not seen. Altogether, his person was a perfect model of aristocratic outline, slim and slender, supple and agreeable. He seemed as if he could be pliant or rigid at will, and twist and bend, or rear his head like ...
— The Thirteen • Honore de Balzac

... late; I can't twist my belief so quickly. I do not need that kind of comfort; far easier to make up my mind that I have always ...
— A Life's Morning • George Gissing

... you gave me a twist when I came on you suddenly. Maybe it's your epigastric nerve; maybe it's your liver and will pass off, but I'd knock off work for a day or two if I ...
— The Veiled Lady - and Other Men and Women • F. Hopkinson Smith

... screams so horrible that he wondered even then if he would ever forget. As he started to run, he realized that when Naida had finally landed in his arms, the nearest squirming loop of the Serpent had been no more than four yards away, and that, right now, if their luck failed, a single unfortunate twist of the incredible hundreds of feet of white muscle could still end things ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, December 1930 • Various

... gentle fingers ye forever ply, Life's nervous thread with care to twist, Till sound the clanging shears, and fruitlessly The tender web would ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... a gala day, and he had been given a large, sugared twist to take with him, and it tasted delicious; but somehow or other he began to cry all at once ...
— One of Life's Slaves • Jonas Lauritz Idemil Lie

... Somewhere deep inside him there seemed a sudden lurch, and then a wonderfully cool, liquid sensation. He felt buoyant and rested and looked about, only to get a wavery, enlarged glimpse of Mr. Wicker, looking more like a reflection in a circus mirror than himself. With a light twist of his body Chris floated over, to see that the room looked the same, and rolling back, could see that Mr. Wicker was peering in at him from above ...
— Mr. Wicker's Window • Carley Dawson

... its flowers, which usually make their appearance in February and March, emit a fragrance scarcely inferior to Mignonet; its leaves, contrary to most others, grow inverted, which is effected by a twist of the footstalk, and afford an excellent example of LINNAEUS's Folium resupinatum; the filaments, after the pollen is discharged, turn upwards, and ...
— The Botanical Magazine, Vol. 4 - Or, Flower-Garden Displayed • William Curtis

... Italian knew that words were wasted now. He was like a snake with his sting. But Rainbow Pete was not an easy man. He broke the arm with one twist, look, the knife went spinning on the ledge. And at this moment the blasting in the rock began again below the ledge. They were at it again, monkeying with powder. Oh, it was death they were speaking to down there. It was like a battle between giants ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1917 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various

... like he never saw. But how vastly more romantic was the Scotland of Scott than is the Scotland of Stevenson! The Vicar of Wakefield and Squire Western are not to be found in an age that is busy with railways and telegraphs and the Review of Reviews. Pickwick and Oliver Twist have been improved off the face of the earth by cheap newspapers and sanitary reform. The fun has gone out of Vanity Fair, and the House of the Seven Gables is an hotel ...
— Studies in Early Victorian Literature • Frederic Harrison

... will be of no fighting value, however big it be. It's the price we've got to pay for not having built up a merchant marine. And we haven't built up a merchant marine because we've had no foreign consciousness. While our Irishmen have been leading us to twist the Lion's tail, we've been depending almost wholly on English ships—and, in late years, on German ships. You can't cross the ocean yet in a decent American ship. You see, we've declared our independence; and, so far as individual development goes, ...
— The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume II • Burton J. Hendrick

... over the side, caught sight of the spout and, with a twist of the shoulder, walked ...
— The Boy With the U. S. Fisheries • Francis Rolt-Wheeler

... Koot," grinned Blunt Rand. "Them kind carry cold steel sharp on both edges. They get it between your shoulder blades and then twist ...
— Wolf Breed • Jackson Gregory

... is not the least item in his difficulty. To know that he is always keeping a secret from her, that he has under all circumstances to conceal and hold fast a tender double tooth, which her sharpness is ever ready to twist out of his head, gives Mr. Snagsby, in her dentistical presence, much of the air of a dog who has a reservation from his master and will look anywhere ...
— Bleak House • Charles Dickens

... SOLAR PLEXUS: Raise the vibrations upward, just as before you forced them downward. Repeat the series with full breath several times. Also give the vibrations with a little twist of the body, so as to get the circular movement over the stomach. VIBRATE THE SOLAR PLEXUS with short, sharp vibrations far up into the chest, this will cover the muscles of the lungs and of the heart. This is a very essential work as it gives new strength to those muscles of the heart ...
— Supreme Personality • Delmer Eugene Croft

... on that night at Artenberg, did I, having no wings to soar to heaven and no key wherewith to open the door of it, make to myself, out of dance, wine, night, and what not, a ladder, mount thereby, and twist the door-handle. But the door was locked, the ladder broke, and I fell headlong. Nor do I doubt that many men are my masters in ...
— The King's Mirror • Anthony Hope

... attraction prompted the impulse, nobody knows; but she took the scissors, and, bending over the sleeping youth, cut off one of the curls, or rather crooks,—for they hardly reached a curl,—into which each lock of his hair chose to twist itself in the last inch of its length. The hair fell upon the rug. She picked it up quickly, returned the scissors to the table, and, as if her dignity had suddenly become ashamed of her fantasies, hastened through the door, ...
— Two on a Tower • Thomas Hardy

... how you felt when you first tried to ride a wheel and when you first tried to swim. You got excited, didn't you? And when you thought the wheel was going over you gave it a wild twist that did send you over, and when you thought you were going to drown you thrashed around in a way that only made matters worse. Well, that's a lesson to remember in running a flying machine. Don't get excited and lose your ...
— The Rover Boys in the Air - From College Campus to the Clouds • Edward Stratemeyer

... a sudden twist. "Why, you dear, odd little thing," she cried. And taking the child in her arms, she covered the tiny head with kisses. ...
— Autumn • Robert Nathan

... partners "cunningly drew him into a bond," and "did unjustly enter staple actions in Bristol of great value against him, because he was of the king's party;" but it would appear as if there had been some twist or infirmity of temper in Dudley himself, which prevented him from working harmoniously with such persons as he became associated with in affairs ...
— Industrial Biography - Iron Workers and Tool Makers • Samuel Smiles

... attached to the wireless outfit on my airship is crossed with the wire from the power plant. There's a short circuit somewhere. Don't come too close, for it may burn through any second and drop down. Then it will twist about like a snake!" ...
— Tom Swift and his Giant Cannon - or, The Longest Shots on Record • Victor Appleton

... bring him before us at some moment of decision or in some strange, perhaps hostile, environment. Or the author may take some character quite out of the ordinary: the village miser, the recluse, or a person with a peculiar mental or moral twist. But, whatever his choice, it is not enough that the character be actually drawn from real life. Indeed, such fidelity to what literally exists may be a hinderance to the writer. The original character may have done strange things and suffered strange things that cannot ...
— Short Stories for English Courses • Various (Rosa M. R. Mikels ed.)

... am the last person to question the importance of genuine literary education, or to suppose that intellectual culture can be complete without it. An exclusively scientific training will bring about a mental twist as surely as an exclusive literary training. The value of the cargo does not compensate for a ship's being out of trim; and I should be very sorry to think that the Scientific College would turn out none but ...
— Harvard Classics Volume 28 - Essays English and American • Various

... inclination of her head to Beauclerk, and laying her hand on Mr. Blake's arm, moves away with him to where a set is already forming at the end of the room. It is without enthusiasm she takes her place with Dysart and one of the O'Donovan girls as vis-a-vis, and prepares to march, retreat, twist and turn with ...
— April's Lady - A Novel • Margaret Wolfe Hungerford

... Absinthe's stamp, who are at first always inclined to differ from other people's opinions, are the very individuals who end in madly adopting them. When an idea has at last penetrated their empty brains, they twist and turn it, dwell upon it, and develop it until it exceeds ...
— Monsieur Lecoq • Emile Gaboriau

... I may give a twist to the leaf; but I am by no means sure till I shall have consulted ...
— Framley Parsonage • Anthony Trollope

... Borders, and would pass through a narrow defile, which he mentioned, where he could be attacked with great advantage. Sir James gave instant orders to march to the spot; and, with that genius for scheming, for which he was so remarkable, commanded his men to twist together the young birch-trees on either side of the passage to prevent the escape of the enemy. This finished, he concealed his archers in a hollow way, near ...
— Folk-Lore and Legends - Scotland • Anonymous

... animating the youthful hero of his drama, devised and undertook the perilous enterprise of escaping from his prison. He inspired his companions with his sentiments and when every attempt at open force was deemed hopeless, they resolved to twist their bed-clothes into ropes, and thus to descend. Four persons, with Home himself, reached the ground in safety. But the rope broke with the fifth, who was a tall lusty man. The sixth was Thomas Barrow, a brave young Englishman, a particular friend ...
— Waverley • Sir Walter Scott

... as typical a modern writer as could be found anywhere. And yet modernity is not his only charm. He has genuine psychological insight and though this insight comes in flashes and is not continuous it often gives an original twist to his characters which helps to make them strangely convincing and appealing. "Round the Corner" is a genuine masterpiece. It is the history of the most charming and touching clergyman described in all English fiction since the Vicar of Wakefield; and the massive, solid manner in which ...
— One Hundred Best Books • John Cowper Powys

... that the bended part or Index of it lay horizontal, I have observ'd it always with moisture to unwreath it self from the East (For instance) by the South to the West, and so by the North to the East again, moving with the Sun (as we commonly say) and with heat and drouth to re-twist; and wreath it self the contrary way, namely, from the East, (for instance) by the North to the West, ...
— Micrographia • Robert Hooke

... twist or by its length, of course," returned the Idiot. "A chicken that dies a natural death does not have its neck wrung; nor when the head is removed by the use of a hatchet, is it likely that it will be cut off so close behind the ears ...
— Coffee and Repartee • John Kendrick Bangs

... sudden twist of the wheel, however, Hal sent the machine out of the path of the German, and, as the enemy sped by, Chester took a ...
— The Boy Allies with the Cossacks - Or, A Wild Dash over the Carpathians • Clair W. Hayes

... such surprise that she was like a mad thing, throwing herself upon him and battling for her treasure, though any possibility of her getting it back from him was hopeless. It was so easy for him to catch her by the wrists and twist them that he laughed while ...
— The Dust Flower • Basil King

... he is likely to have less physical and mental stamina than the deserter. That phrase in which the psychiatrists take refuge, "constitutional inferiority," is more likely to describe the stay-at-home than the wanderer. However, one social worker (non-medical) says "a mental twist more often enters into the problem of the deserter than into that of the non-supporter, from ...
— Broken Homes - A Study of Family Desertion and its Social Treatment • Joanna C. Colcord

... said quietly. "A darky like Jim, who gets a twist in his head about freedom and license, is a ...
— A Son of the Hills • Harriet T. Comstock

... passenger carrying space to overflowing. Meantime, the Germans, having found cover, had opened up a brisk rifle fire against the aeroplane, and bullets began to sing through the framework. One of the observers leaped to the ground, gave the propeller a vigorous twist, and as the motor began to roar clambered aboard as the big plane started over the rough ground, bumping and jolting, but rapidly gaining speed. The Germans broke from their shelter in pursuit, firing wildly as they ran, but although some ...
— Army Boys in the French Trenches • Homer Randall

... the drollest of droll pipers—with kilt and brata and cap. It made him feel as if he had been dropped into the center of a giant kaleidoscope, with thousands of pieces of gray smoke turning, at the twist of a hand, into form and color, motion and music. The pipers piped; the figures danced, whirling and whirling about him, and their laughter could be heard above ...
— The Primrose Ring • Ruth Sawyer

... spoke he was walking toward the door that led into the hall, and now he confidently put out his hand and turned the knob. His expression changed. He gave the knob a violent twist, then, setting his shoulder against the jamb, tried to wrench the door open. It did not yield. Doris, watching him wide-eyed, was the first ...
— The Girl in the Mirror • Elizabeth Garver Jordan

... lost it, but, before he reached Round Hill, he found a warmer trail. Before him, stamped clearly in the road still damp from the rain of the night before, two lines of little arrow-heads pointed the way. They were so fresh that at each twist in the road, lest the car should be just beyond him, Jimmie slackened his steps. After half a mile the scent grew hot. The tracks were deeper, the arrow-heads more clearly cut, and Jimmie broke into ...
— The Red Cross Girl • Richard Harding Davis

... before they settled down to the business of strawberry-picking! She could have spats enough with that horrid, spiteful Cuban girl, but there was no fun in those; just cold, sneering hatefulness. Thinking of her cousin Rita, Peggy gave her hat a twist and a fling, and sent it flying across the green meadow on which she ...
— Three Margarets • Laura E. Richards

... holes in them; to this he added a reed for the pipe; he then fixed it by means of a long cord and a post, to the side of his fire, and Jack, with his hand or his foot, blew the fire, so that the iron was speedily red hot, and quite malleable. I then showed them how to twist the iron into a screw,—rather clumsy, but which would answer the purpose tolerably well. At one end they formed a ring, in which we placed a piece of wood transversely, to enable them to turn the screw. We then made a trial of it. We placed a tree on two props, and Fritz and I managed ...
— The Swiss Family Robinson; or Adventures in a Desert Island • Johann David Wyss

... up and walking all over me with cold feet," said he. "I've got to warm up, and right now there's only one thing I want, and that is to get my hands in Porter's whiskers and twist his neck. Let's hotfoot it around and see if we ...
— Frank Merriwell, Junior's, Golden Trail - or, The Fugitive Professor • Burt L. Standish

... was lifted and put into the canoe, and again firmly held by a strong arm. Then came the smooth dip of paddles, and Anne knew that she was being taken away from home, and she felt the tears on her cheeks. She did not try to scream again, for there had been a rough twist of the blanket about her head when she cried out before, and she was held too firmly to struggle. She could hear the guttural voices of the Indians, and, after what seemed a long time, she realized that her captors were making a landing. She was again dropped on ...
— A Little Maid of Province Town • Alice Turner Curtis

... he'd thrown me down and kicked me, I'd have let him. But he never cared himself; I know that now. I've known it a long time. And I've vowed to myself, and I vowed to mother when she lay dying, that I wouldn't let him have anything more to do with me. He frightens me, because he can twist me round his finger and make me care so ... and it hurts.... And he's just playing; he'll never really care. But for all I know that, I know he can get me whenever he wants me. And he's come back again to amuse himself seeing me worship him ... and he'll make me ...
— The Lee Shore • Rose Macaulay

... her own with any other man," Ellen said to herself; and the little twinge of envy became almost a pang. She stood staring out of the window, her dark eyes heavy with her thoughts, her lips taking on a little twist of pain. Then, presently, she lifted her head. "She will never, never let him know. He will never discover it for himself. But if she can find happiness in being of use to him, and he can reward her by being her good friend, why should I mind? Can't ...
— Mrs. Red Pepper • Grace S. Richmond

... what it may be?" said Claudia, as she loosened a twist in the cloths which enveloped the bust. There are often very remarkable things to ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... you do not understand me. If an ancient bachelor, whose head shone like the moon there in the sky, were to give to some blithe young belle a rose or a lily, she would, most likely, twist it in her hair; but if some other person had presented the flower, one whose eye was brighter, whose step was quicker, whose laugh was cheerier, whose years were fewer; in short, ma chere Annette, if some one for whom she cared just a little more than ...
— Annette, The Metis Spy • Joseph Edmund Collins



Words linked to "Twist" :   distort, form, rotary motion, maneuver, gimmick, weave, twine, wriggle, enlace, winding, convolute, convolve, kink, motion, worm, rick, current, denote, tress, flexure, rotation, move, flex, injury, wave, hairdo, refer, pigtail, twist wood, circumvolute, pull, hair style, change form, wrick, eddy, coiffure, twist drill, interweave, crook, interpretation, change shape, wind, crease, fast one, development, crimp, shape, queue, sprain, curl, bend, twiddle, device, spin, twirl, quirk, trip the light fantastic toe, trick, entwine, plait, tangle, tactical maneuver



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