different between tweep vs twerp

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -i?p

Etymology 1

Onomatopoeic.

Noun

tweep (plural tweeps)

1. A chirp or beep.
   • 1995, John Wynne, The Listener's Guide to Audio Books: Reviews, Recommendations, and Listings for More Than 2,000 Titles, Fireside (1995), ?ISBN, page 321:

     The readers are Star Trek cast members, and the sound is enhanced with authentic, Enterprise-sounding beeps and tweeps.

   • 2008, Eric W. Bragg, The Midnight Blade of Sonic Honey, Oyster Moon Press (2008), ?ISBN, page 106:

     Many of the neighboring birds had already begun their preliminary chirps, sending out those quirky little twits and tweeps that announce their presence […]

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:tweep.

Verb

tweep (third-person singular simple present tweeps, present participle tweeping, simple past and past participle tweeped)

1. To chirp or beep.
   • 1996, Lauraine Snelling, A New Day Rising, Bethany House Publishers (1996), ?ISBN, unnumbered page:

     A bird tweeped and twittered on a thistle by the side of the trail.

   • 1999, Laura Kalpakian, Steps and Exes: A Novel of Family, Bard (1999), ?ISBN, page 103:

     No ubiquitous telephones, no fax machines or computers burping and tweeping and chirping their electronic chirps.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:tweep.

Etymology 2

From TWEP, acronym of terminate with extreme prejudice, a US military intelligence and CIA euphemism for "kill, assassinate" that was first used in the 1960s.

Verb

tweep (third-person singular simple present tweeps, present participle tweeping, simple past and past participle tweeped)

1. (US, intelligence, euphemistic) To kill; to assassinate.
   • 1997, William B. Breuer, Vendetta!: Fidel Castro and the Kennedy Brothers, John Wiley (1997), ?ISBN:

     Robert Maheu, tough, astute, dynamic, was the perfect professional to implement the CIA scheme to tweep Fidel Castro.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:tweep.

Etymology 3

Blend of Twitter +? peep (“person”).

Noun

tweep (plural tweeps or tweeple)

1. (Internet, slang) A user of the Twitter microblogging service.
   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:tweep.

   Synonyms: Twitter user, Twitter blogger, tweeter, twitterer

Anagrams

• pewet, wepte

English

Alternative forms

• twirp

Etymology

Of uncertain origin. The Oxford English Dictionary writes that it may have been coined (perhaps by J. R. R. Tolkien) around 1910 from the name of T. W. Earp. However, the Dictionary of American Slang writes that it was in use in 1874. It may be a dialectal variant of dwarf (compare Middle English dwerf, Low German Twarg); it may also derive from the onomatopoeic twirp.The word was used to denote a type of racing pigeon that flew between Antwerp and London c. 1870 [see "The Odd Facts of Life" – Bill Hooper, published in 1965]. It may also be related to the Welsh twp, a fool.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /tw?p/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /tw??p/
• Rhymes: -??(?)p

Noun

twerp (plural twerps)

1. (Britain, colloquial) A fool, a twit.

   Now you've broken it, you twerp!

2. (US, colloquial) A small or puny person; one regarded as insignificant, contemptible.

   Get out of my way, you little twerp!

3. (US, colloquial) A person who can be bullied playfully, or easily teased. Sometimes used as a pet-name (often for a younger sibling).

Synonyms

• (puny person): twerk
• (fool): twit
• (fool): git

Related terms

• twerk

Translations

References

• See Citations:twerp.