twist·er

(twĭs′tər)

1. One that twists, as in the manufacture of rope or yarn.

2. Sports A ball thrown or batted with a twist.

3. Informal A tornado or cyclone.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

twister

(ˈtwɪstə)

1. Brit a swindling or dishonest person

2. a person or thing that twists, such as a device used in making ropes

3. (Physical Geography) US and Canadian an informal name for tornado

4. (General Sporting Terms) a ball moving with a twisting motion

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

twist•er

(ˈtwɪs tər)

n.

1. a person or thing that twists.

2. Informal. a whirlwind or tornado.

[1475–85]

twister

whirlwind.

twister

[ˈtwɪstəʳ] N

1. (US) (= tornado) → huracán m

2. (Brit) (= crook) → estafador(a) m/f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

twister

[ˈtwɪstə^r] (US) n → tornade f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

twister

(Brit, pej, = person) → Gauner(in) m(f), → Halunke m

(Brit, = question) → harte Nuss (inf); (= problem) → harter Brocken (inf)

(US inf: = tornado) → Wirbelsturm m, → Tornado m

(= dancer) → Twisttänzer(in) m(f)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

twister

[ˈtwɪstəʳ] n (fam)

a. (cheat) → imbroglione/a

b. (Am) (tornado) → tornado

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

twist

(twist) verb

1. to turn round (and round). He twisted the knob; The road twisted through the mountains.

2. to wind around or together. He twisted the piece of string (together) to make a rope.

3. to force out of the correct shape or position. The heat of the fire twisted the metal; He twisted her arm painfully.

noun

1. the act of twisting.

2. a twisted piece of something. He added a twist of lemon to her drink.

3. a turn, coil etc. There's a twist in the rope.

4. a change in direction (of a story etc). The story had a strange twist at the end.

ˈtwisted adjective

bent out of shape. a twisted branch; a twisted report.

ˈtwister noun

a dishonest or deceiving person.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

One such he passed, a twister that was at least ten or eleven feet through.

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He was a gentleman before he was gazetted, so, when the Empress announced that "Gentleman-Cadet Robert Hanna Wick" was posted as Second Lieutenant to the Tyneside Tail Twisters at Krab Bokhar, he became an officer and a gentleman, which is an enviable thing; and there was joy in the house of Wick, where Mamma Wick and all the little Wicks fell upon their knees and offered incense to Bobby by virtue of his achievements.

When you join the Tail Twisters you'll be among friends, if every one hasn't forgotten Wick of Chota-Buldana, and a lot of people will be kind to you for our sakes.

When Bobby came up from Deolali and took his place among the Tail Twisters, it was gently but firmly borne in upon him that the Regiment was his father and his mother and his indissolubly wedded wife, and that there was no crime under the canopy of heaven blacker than that of bringing shame on the Regiment, which was the best-shooting, best-drilled, best set-up, bravest, most illustrious, and in all respects most desirable Regiment within the compass of the Seven Seas.

But best of all was the occasion when he moved with the Tail Twisters in review order at the breaking of a November day.

The review ended in a glorious chase across the plain - batteries thundering after cavalry to the huge disgust of the White Hussars, and the Tyneside Tail Twisters hunting a Sikh Regiment till the lean, lathy Singhs panted with exhaustion.

The sickness in the out-villages spread, the Bazar was put out of bounds, and then came the news that the Tail Twisters must go into camp.

On the Umballa platform waited a detachment of officers discussing the latest news from the stricken cantonment, and it was here that Bobby learned the real condition of the Tail Twisters.

Bobby pressed his forehead against the rain-splashed window-pane as the train lumbered across the sodden Doab, and prayed for the health of the Tyneside Tail Twisters. Naini Tal had sent down her contingent with all speed; the lathering ponies of the Dalhousie Road staggered into Pathankot, taxed to the full stretch of their strength; while from cloudy Darjiling the Calcutta Mail whirled up the last straggler of the little army that was to fight a fight, in which was neither medal nor honour for the winning, against an enemy none other than "the sickness that destroyeth in the noonday."

Bobby fought his way through the rain to the Tail Twisters' temporary mess, and Revere could have fallen on the boy's neck for the joy of seeing that ugly, wholesome phiz once more.

By what power he drew after him the hearts of the roughest, and the Tail Twisters counted in their ranks some rough diamonds indeed, was a mystery to both skipper and C.

View in context

(It would have been stopped anyhow, but that he was a great favourite with the old gentleman, who loved to come out in the afternoons into the close to Tom's wicket, and bowl slow twisters to him, and talk of the glories of bygone Surrey heroes, with whom he had played former generations.) So Tom roused himself, and took up his candle to go to bed; and then for the first time was aware of a beautiful new fishing-rod, with old Eton's mark on it, and a splendidly-bound Bible, which lay on his table, on the title-page of which was written--"TOM BROWN, from his affectionate and grateful friends, Frances Jane Arthur; George Arthur."

View in context

Noun	1.	twister - a localized and violently destructive windstorm occurring over land characterized by a funnel-shaped cloud extending toward the ground tornado cyclone - a violent rotating windstorm supertwister - the most powerful tornado which can create enormously devastating damage; "supertwisters are fortunately rare" waterspout - a tornado passing over water and picking up a column of water and mist
	2.	twister - small friedcake formed into twisted strips and fried; richer than doughnuts cruller friedcake - small cake in the form of a ring or twist or ball or strip fried in deep fat