To move to and fro, as a body suspended in the air; to wave; to vibrate; to oscillate.
To sway or move from one side or direction to another; as, the door swung open.
To use a swing; as, a boy swings for exercise or pleasure. See Swing, n., 3.
To turn round by action of wind or tide when at anchor; as, a ship swings with the tide.
To be hanged.
To cause to swing or vibrate; to cause to move backward and forward, or from one side to the other.
To give a circular movement to; to whirl; to brandish; as, to swing a sword; to swing a club; hence, colloquially, to manage; as, to swing a business.
To admit or turn (anything) for the purpose of shaping it; - said of a lathe; as, the lathe can swing a pulley of 12 inches diameter.
The act of swinging; a waving, oscillating, or vibratory motion of a hanging or pivoted object; oscillation; as, the swing of a pendulum.
Swaying motion from one side or direction to the other; as, some men walk with a swing.
A line, cord, or other thing suspended and hanging loose, upon which anything may swing; especially, an apparatus for recreation by swinging, commonly consisting of a rope, the two ends of which are attached overhead, as to the bough of a tree, a seat being placed in the loop at the bottom; also, any contrivance by which a similar motion is produced for amusement or exercise.
Influence of power of a body put in swaying motion.
Capacity of a turning lathe, as determined by the diameter of the largest object that can be turned in it.
Free course; unrestrained liberty or license; tendency.
To contort; to writhe; to complicate; to crook spirally; to convolve.
Hence, to turn from the true form or meaning; to pervert; as, to twist a passage cited from an author.
To distort, as a solid body, by turning one part relatively to another about an axis passing through both; to subject to torsion; as, to twist a shaft.
To wreathe; to wind; to encircle; to unite by intertexture of parts.
To wind into; to insinuate; - used reflexively; as, avarice twists itself into all human concerns.
To unite by winding one thread, strand, or other flexible substance, round another; to form by convolution, or winding separate things round each other; as, to twist yarn or thread.
Hence, to form as if by winding one part around another; to wreathe; to make up.
To form into a thread from many fine filaments; as, to twist wool or cotton.
To be contorted; to writhe; to be distorted by torsion; to be united by winding round each other; to be or become twisted; as, some strands will twist more easily than others.
To follow a helical or spiral course; to be in the form of a helix.
The act of twisting; a contortion; a flexure; a convolution; a bending.
The form given in twisting.
That which is formed by twisting, convoluting, or uniting parts.
A cord, thread, or anything flexible, formed by winding strands or separate things round each other.
A twig.
A kind of closely twisted, strong sewing silk, used by tailors, saddlers, and the like.
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.
A kind of cotton yarn, of several varieties.
A strong individual tendency, or bent; a marked inclination; a bias; - often implying a peculiar or unusual tendency; as, a twist toward fanaticism.
A roll of twisted dough, baked.
A little twisted roll of tobacco.
One of the threads of a warp, - usually more tightly twisted than the filling.
A material for gun barrels, consisting of iron and steel twisted and welded together; as, Damascus twist.
The spiral course of the rifling of a gun barrel or a cannon.
A beverage made of brandy and gin.