flex vs twist what difference
what is difference between flex and twist
English
Etymology
Latin flexus, past participle of flecto (“to bend”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /flɛks/
- Rhymes: -ɛks
- Homophone: flecks
Noun
flex (countable and uncountable, plural flexes)
- (uncountable) Flexibility, pliancy.
- (countable) The or an act of flexing.
- 2002, Gary Noy, Red Dirt: A Journey of Discovery in the Landscape of Imagination, California’s Gold Country, iUniverse (→ISBN), page 144:
- The hills become more rounded. The slopes are either the stooped shoulders of an aging colossus or the muscular flexes of a geologic youngster, but they are pleasant, comforting. This landscape is what most would think of […]
- 2002, Gary Noy, Red Dirt: A Journey of Discovery in the Landscape of Imagination, California’s Gold Country, iUniverse (→ISBN), page 144:
- (uncountable, chiefly Britain) Any flexible insulated electrical wiring.
- (uncountable) Flexible ductwork, typically flexible plastic over a metal wire coil to shape a tube.
- 2010, Aaron Lubeck, Green Restorations: Sustainable Building and Historic Homes (page 221)
- Flex is quick and cheaper to install than metallic systems, but it yields higher pressure loss than other types of ducts and requires runs of less than 15 feet, minimal turns and elimination of kinks.
- 2010, Aaron Lubeck, Green Restorations: Sustainable Building and Historic Homes (page 221)
- (countable, geometry) A point of inflection.
- (countable, slang) The act of flaunting something; something one considers impressive.
- 2017, “Mogul Bites”, Black American Moguls, Fall 2017, page 6:
- Getting together with other power players at Masa is the ultimate flex of conspicuous consumption. […] A party of five or more requires a deposit of $200 per person at least one week prior to the reservation.
- 2019, Seth Sommerfeld, “Worldwide Web”, Inlander, 4 July 2019 – 10 July 2019, page 37:
- It’s an achievement to stand out from other Marvel movies in terms of special effects, but this whole movie feels like a flex for those computer wizards.
- 2020, Daniel Varghese, “Aesop’s Hand Sanitizer Is a Flex for an Anxious Time”, GQ, 6 March 2020
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:flex.
- 2017, “Mogul Bites”, Black American Moguls, Fall 2017, page 6:
Translations
Verb
flex (third-person singular simple present flexes, present participle flexing, simple past and past participle flexed)
- (transitive, chiefly physics or biomechanics) To bend something.
- (transitive) To repeatedly bend one of one’s joints.
- (transitive) To move part of the body using one’s muscles.
- (intransitive) To tighten the muscles for display of size or strength.
- (intransitive, slang, by extension) To flaunt one’s superiority.
Translations
Related terms
- flexibility
- flexible
- flexing
- flexion
Anagrams
- XFEL
English
Etymology
From Middle English twist, from Old English *twist, in compounds (e.g. mæsttwist (“a rope; stay”), candeltwist (“a wick”)), from Proto-Germanic *twistaz, a derivative of *twi- (“two-”) (compare also twine, between, betwixt).
Related to Saterland Frisian Twist (“discord”), Dutch twist (“twist; strife; discord”), German Low German Twist (“strife; discord”), German Zwist (“turmoil; strife; discord”), Swedish tvist (“quarrel; dispute”), Icelandic tvistur (“deuce”).
The verb is from Middle English twisten. Compare Dutch twisten, Danish tviste (“to dispute”), Swedish tvista (“to argue; dispute”).
Pronunciation
- enPR: twĭst, IPA(key): /twɪst/, [tw̥ɪst]
- Rhymes: -ɪst
Noun
twist (countable and uncountable, plural twists)
- A twisting force.
- Anything twisted, or the act of twisting.
- 1906, Edith Nesbit, The Railway Children Chapter 8
- Peter was always proud afterwards when he remembered that, with the Bargee’s furious fingers tightening on his ear, the Bargee’s crimson countenance close to his own, the Bargee’s hot breath on his neck, he had the courage to speak the truth.
- “I wasn’t catching fish,” said Peter.
- “That’s not your fault, I’ll be bound,” said the man, giving Peter’s ear a twist—not a hard one—but still a twist.
- Not the least turn or twist in the fibres 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.
- 1906, Edith Nesbit, The Railway Children Chapter 8
- The form given in twisting.
- 1712, John Arbuthnot, The History of John Bull
- [He] shrunk at first sight of it; he found fault with the length, the thickness, and the twist.
- 1712, John Arbuthnot, The History of John Bull
- The degree of stress or strain when twisted.
- A type of thread made from two filaments twisted together.
- 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 140:
- I was one morning walking arm in arm with him in St James’s Park, his dress then being […] waistcoat and breeches of the same blue satin, trimmed with silver twist à la hussarde, and ermine edges.
- 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 140:
- A sliver of lemon peel added to a cocktail, etc.
- 2005, Theodore J. Albasini, The Progeny
- Bunny sat on the only remaining stool at the leather-padded oval bar in the Iron Lounge. It was happy hour, two drinks for the price of one. She decided on a martini with a twist, and while the bartender was preparing her drink, she scanned the faces looking at the bar.
- 2005, Theodore J. Albasini, The Progeny
- A sudden bend (or short series of bends) in a road, path, etc.
- A distortion to the meaning of a word or passage.
- An unexpected turn in a story, tale, etc.
- (preceded by definite article) A type of dance characterised by rotating one’s hips. See Twist (dance) on Wikipedia for more details.
- A rotation of the body when diving.
- A sprain, especially to the ankle.
- (obsolete) A twig.
- (slang) A girl, a woman.
- 1990, Miller’s Crossing, 01:08:20
- (Dane, speaking about a woman character) “I’ll see where the twist flops”
- 1990, Miller’s Crossing, 01:08:20
- A roll or baton of baked dough or pastry in a twisted shape.
- (countable, uncountable) A small roll of tobacco.
- 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt
- […] this Katie Byrne was a great favourite with Art and Con, to whom she always brought a gift of tobacco twist, when she came on a visit, and Art and Con were great chewers of tobacco twist, and never had enough, never never had enough tobacco twist, for their liking.
- 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt
- A material for gun barrels, consisting of iron and steel twisted and welded together.
- The spiral course of the rifling of a gun barrel or a cannon.
- (obsolete, slang) A beverage made of brandy and gin.
- A strong individual tendency or bent; inclination.
- a twist toward fanaticism
- (slang, archaic) An appetite for food.
- 1861, The Farmer’s Magazine (page 40)
- He [the yearling bull] had a good handsome male head, and he had a capital twist. He had a spring in his rib, and was something over seven feet in girth. He was well covered, and had all the recommendations of quality, symmetry, and size.
- 1861, The Farmer’s Magazine (page 40)
Descendants
- German: Twist
Translations
Verb
twist (third-person singular simple present twists, present participle twisting, simple past and past participle twisted)
- To turn the ends of something, usually thread, rope etc., in opposite directions, often using force.
- To join together by twining one part around another.
- 1900, L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Chapter 15
- “Well, one day I went up in a balloon and the ropes got twisted, so that I couldn’t come down again. It went way up above the clouds, so far that a current of air struck it and carried it many, many miles away. For a day and a night I traveled through the air, and on the morning of the second day I awoke and found the balloon floating over a strange and beautiful country.”
- 1900, L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Chapter 15
- To contort; to writhe; to complicate; to crook spirally; to convolve.
- June 8, 1714, Alexander Pope, letter to Jonathan Swift
- twisting it into a serpentine form.
- June 8, 1714, Alexander Pope, letter to Jonathan Swift
- To wreathe; to wind; to encircle; to unite by intertexture of parts.
- 1645, Edmund Waller, To my Lord of Falkland
- longing to twist bays with that ivy
- 1844, Robert Chambers, “Dr Thomas Burnet” in Cyclopædia of English Literature
- There are pillars of smoke twisted about wreaths of flame.
- 1645, Edmund Waller, To my Lord of Falkland
- (reflexive) To wind into; to insinuate.
- Avarice twists itself into all human concerns.
- To turn a knob etc.
- To distort or change the truth or meaning of words when repeating.
- To form a twist (in any of the above noun meanings).
- To injure (a body part) by bending it in the wrong direction.
- 1913, George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion Act V
- Oh, you are a devil. You can twist the heart in a girl as easy as some could twist her arms to hurt her. Mrs. Pearce warned me. Time and again she has wanted to leave you; and you always got round her at the last minute. And you don’t care a bit for her. And you don’t care a bit for me.
- 1901, Henry Lawson, Joe Wilson’s Courtship
- Then Romany went down, then we fell together, and the chaps separated us. I got another knock-down blow in, and was beginning to enjoy the novelty of it, when Romany staggered and limped.
- ‘I’ve done,’ he said. ‘I’ve twisted my ankle.’ He’d caught his heel against a tuft of grass.
- 1913, George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion Act V
- (intransitive, of a path) To wind; to follow a bendy or wavy course; to have many bends.
- 1926, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, He
- My coming to New York had been a mistake; for whereas I had looked for poignant wonder and inspiration in the teeming labyrinths of ancient streets that twist endlessly from forgotten courts and squares and waterfronts to courts and squares and waterfronts equally forgotten, and in the Cyclopean modern towers and pinnacles that rise blackly Babylonian under waning moons, I had found instead only a sense of horror and oppression which threatened to master, paralyze, and annihilate me.
- 1926, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, He
- (transitive) To cause to rotate.
- 1911, John Masefield, Jim Davis Chapter 8
- The tide seized us and swept us along, and in the races where this happened there were sucking whirlpools, strong enough to twist us round.
- 1911, John Masefield, Jim Davis Chapter 8
- (intransitive) To dance the twist (a type of dance characterised by twisting one’s hips).
- (transitive) To coax.
- 1932, Robert E. Howard, Dark Shanghai
- “On the three-thousand-dollar reward John Bain is offerin’ for the return of his sister,” said Ace. “Now listen–I know a certain big Chinee had her kidnapped outa her ‘rickshaw out at the edge of the city one evenin’. He’s been keepin’ her prisoner in his house, waitin’ a chance to send her up-country to some bandit friends of his’n; then they’ll be in position to twist a big ransome outa John Bain, see? […]”
- 1932, Robert E. Howard, Dark Shanghai
- (card games) In the game of blackjack (pontoon or twenty-one), to be dealt another card.
Antonyms
(in blackjack, be dealt another card):: stick; stay
Translations
Derived terms
Anagrams
- twits, witts
Czech
Etymology
From English twist.
Noun
twist m
- twist (dance)
Further reading
- twist in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu
- twist in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989
Dutch
Etymology
From English twist.
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -ɪst
Noun
twist m (uncountable, diminutive twistje n)
- strife, discord
- dispute
- twist: dance, turn
Derived terms
- redetwist
- twistappel
Anagrams
- witst
Finnish
Etymology
From English twist.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈtwist/, [ˈt̪wis̠t̪]
- IPA(key): /ˈtʋist/, [ˈt̪ʋis̠t̪]
- Rhymes: -ist
- Syllabification: twist
Noun
twist
- twist (dance)
Declension
Derived terms
- twistata
French
Etymology
From English twist.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /twist/
Noun
twist m (plural twists)
- twist (dance)
Derived terms
- twister
Further reading
- “twist” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Middle English
Alternative forms
- twest, tweste, twyst, twyste
Etymology
Old English *twist, attested in compounds (e.g. mæsttwist (“a rope; stay”), candeltwist (“a wick”)), from Proto-Germanic *twistaz.
Noun
twist (plural twists)
- the flat part of a hinge (less specifically the entire hinge)
- a forked twig
- a bifurcation
- the groin
Descendants
- English: twist
Related terms
- twisten (verb)
References
- “twist, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Portuguese
Etymology
From English twist.
Noun
twist m (uncountable)
- twist (type of dance)
Spanish
Etymology
From English twist.
Noun
twist m (plural twists)
- twist