twine

• twyne (obsolete)

• IPA^(key): /twaɪn/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪn

From Middle English twyn, twyne, twin, from Old English twīn (“double thread, twist, twine, linen-thread, linen”), from Proto-West Germanic *twiʀn (“thread, twine”), from Proto-Indo-European *dwisnós (“double”), from *dwóh₁ (“two”).

twine (countable and uncountable, plural twines)

1. A twist; a convolution.
   • 1629, John Milton, “On the Morning of Christs Nativity”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 11:

     Not Typhon huge ending in ſnaky twine:

2. A strong thread composed of two or three smaller threads or strands twisted together, and used for various purposes, as for binding small parcels, making nets, and the like; a small cord or string.
   • 1911, Anna Botsford Comstock, Handbook of Nature Study, 24th edition, published 1939, pages 120–121:

     The orioles like to build the framework of twine, and it is marvelous how they will loop this around a twig almost as evenly knotted as if crocheted […]

3. The act of twining or winding round.
   • 1708, [John Philips], “Book I”, in Cyder. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 16:

     The Colewort's rankness, but with amorous twine / Clasps the tall Elm

4. Intimate and suggestive dance gyrations.
   • 1965, Wilson Pickett, Don't Fight It (blues song), BMI Music.

     The way you jerk, the way you do the twine / You're too much, baby; I'd like to make you mine [...]

• (threads or strands twisted together): sinew

From Middle English twinen, twynen, from Old English *twīnian (“to twine, thread”), from Proto-Germanic *twiznōną (“to thread”), from Proto-Indo-European *dwisnós (“double”), from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ (“two”). Cognate with Dutch twijnen (“to twine, contort, throw”), Danish tvinde (“to twist”), Swedish tvinna (“to twist, twine, throw”), Icelandic tvinna (“to merge, twine”).

twine (third-person singular simple present twines, present participle twining, simple past and past participle twined)

1. (transitive) To weave together.
2. (transitive) To wind, as one thread around another, or as any flexible substance around another body.
   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]:

     Let me twine
     Mine arms about that body […]

   • 1931, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 10, in The Glass Key‎, New York: Vintage, published 1972, page 199:

     She was twining her fingers together.

3. (transitive) To wind about; to embrace; to entwine.
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     1712 May, [Alexander Pope], “The Rape of the Locke. An Heroi-comical Poem.”, in Miscellaneous Poems and Translations. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, canto III:

     “Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine,”
     The victor cried, “the glorious prize is mine! […] ”

4. (intransitive) To mutually twist together; to become mutually involved; to intertwine.
   • 1941, Emily Carr, chapter 1, in Klee Wyck‎:

     Usually some old crone was squatted on the earth floor, weaving cedar fibre or tatters of old cloth into a mat, her claw-like fingers twining in and out, in and out, among the strands that were fastened to a crude frame of sticks.

5. (intransitive) To wind; to bend; to make turns; to meander.
   • 1713, Jonathan Swift, Cadenus and Vanessa‎:

     As rivers, though they bend and twine,
     Still to the sea their course incline:

6. (intransitive) To ascend in spiral lines about a support; to climb spirally.

   Many plants twine.

7. (obsolete) To turn round; to revolve.
   • 1598, George Chapman, Hero and Leander:

     dancers twine midst cedar-fragrant glades

8. (obsolete) To change the direction of.
   • 1600, Torquato Tasso, translated by Edward Fairfax, Jerusalem Delivered‎, published 1581, Book 20, Stanza 38:

     For where he turned his sword, or twined his steed,
     He slew, or man and beast on earth down laid,

9. (obsolete) To mingle; to mix.
   • 1646, Richard Crashaw, M. Crashaw’s Answer for Hope‎, lines 29–30:

     As lumpes of sugar loose themselues, and twine
     Their subtile essence with the soul of wine.

• entwine
• intertwine

twine (third-person singular simple present twines, present participle twining, simple past and past participle twined)

1. Alternative form of twin (“to separate”)

twine

1. Alternative form of twye

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 73