different between twitch vs grab

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English twicchen, from Old English *twi??an, from Proto-West Germanic *twikkijan (“to nail, pin, fasten, clasp, pinch”). Cognate with English tweak, Low German twikken, German Low German twicken (“to pinch, pinch off”), zweck?n and gizwickan (> German zwicken (“to pinch”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tw?t??/, [t?w??t??]
• Rhymes: -?t?

Noun

twitch (countable and uncountable, plural twitches)

1. A brief, small (sometimes involuntary) movement out of place and then back again; a spasm.

2. (informal) Action of spotting or seeking out a bird, especially a rare one.
3. (farriery) A stick with a hole in one end through which passes a loop, which can be drawn tightly over the upper lip or an ear of a horse and twisted to keep the animal quiet during minor surgery.

   Synonym: barnacle

   • 1861, John Henry Walsh, The Horse in the Stable and in the Field

     THE TWITCH is a short stick of strong ash, about the size of a mopstick, with a hole pierced near the end, through which is passed a piece of strong but small cord, and tied in a loop large enough to admit the open hand freely.

4. (physiology) A brief, contractile response of a skeletal muscle elicited by a single maximal volley of impulses in the neurons supplying it.
5. (mining) The sudden narrowing almost to nothing of a vein of ore.
6. (birdwatching) A trip taken in order to observe a rare bird.

Derived terms

• nervous twitch
• twitch game

Translations

References

• Twitch in The Free Dictionary (Medicine)

Verb

twitch (third-person singular simple present twitches, present participle twitching, simple past and past participle twitched)

1. (intransitive) To perform a twitch; spasm.

2. (transitive) To cause to twitch; spasm.
   • 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

     Their feet padded softly on the ground, and they crept quite close to him, twitching their noses...

3. (transitive) To jerk sharply and briefly.

   • Thrice they twitched the diamond in her ear.

4. (obsolete) To exert oneself. [15th-17th c.]
5. (transitive) To spot or seek out a bird, especially a rare one.
   • 1995, Quarterly Review of Biology vol. 70 p. 348:

     "The Birdwatchers Handbook ... will be a clear asset to those who 'twitch' in Europe."

   • 2003, Mark Cocker, Birders: Tales of a Tribe [1], ?ISBN, page 52:

     "But the key revelation from twitching that wonderful Iceland Gull on 10 March 1974 wasn't its eroticism. It was the sheer innocence of it."

   • 2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch: One Man, One Continent, a Race Against Time [2], ?ISBN, page 119:

     "I hadn't seen John since I went to Adelaide to (unsuccessfully) twitch the '87 Northern Shoveler, when I was a skinny, eighteen- year-old kid. "

Translations

Usage notes

When used of birdwatchers by ignorant outsiders, this term frequently carries a negative connotation.

Derived terms

• atwitch

Etymology 2

alternate of quitch

Noun

twitch (uncountable)

1. couch grass (Elymus repens; a species of grass, often considered as a weed)

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??æb/
• Rhymes: -æb

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch grabben (“to grab”) or Middle Low German grabben (“to snap”), from Proto-Germanic *grab-, from Proto-Indo-European *g?reb?- (compare Sanskrit ???????? (g?h???ti), ???????? (g?bh???ti, “he seizes”), Avestan ????????????????????? (gar^??, “to seize”)). Cognate with Danish grabbe (“to grab”), Swedish grabba (“to grab”), Old English ?egræppian (“to seize”), Middle English grappen (“to feel with the hands; grope”), Macedonian ?????? (grabne, “to snatch”), ??????? (grabvam, “to snatch”).

Verb

grab (third-person singular simple present grabs, present participle grabbing, simple past and past participle grabbed)

1. (transitive) To grip suddenly; to seize; to clutch.

2. (intransitive) To make a sudden grasping or clutching motion (at something).

3. To restrain someone; to arrest.
4. (transitive) To grip the attention of; to enthrall or interest.

   How does that idea grab you?

5. (informal) To quickly collect or retrieve.
   • 1987 James Grady Just a Shot Away, Bantam, page 117:

     "I'll just grab my jacket," said Manh-Hung.

   • 1999 Jillian Dagg, Racing Hearts, Thomas Bouregy & Co., page 105:

     Hardly believing that Rafe actually planned to relax for a while, Kate nodded. "All right. Fine. I'll just go grab my purse."

   • 2009 Mike Taylor, A Thousand Sleeps, Tate Publishing, page 216:

     He looked at Albert and Ben, and then back to Nurse Allen. "I'll just grab my gear and be right back."

6. (informal) To consume something quickly.

7. To take the opportunity of.

Translations

Noun

grab (countable and uncountable, plural grabs)

1. (countable) A sudden snatch at something.
   • 1931 Harold M. Sherman, "The Baseball Clown," Boys' Life, volume 21, No. 4 (April 1931), Boy Scouts of America, page 47:

     The ball popped in and popped out, and when he made a grab for it on the ground he kicked it with his foot.

   • 2003 J Davey, Six Years of Darkness, Trafford Publishing, page 66:

     He made a grab for me and I swung my handbag at him as hard as I could.

2. (countable) An acquisition by violent or unjust means.
3. (countable) A mechanical device that grabs or clutches.
   1. A device for withdrawing drills, etc., from artesian and other wells that are drilled, bored, or driven.
4. (countable, media) A sound bite.
5. (obsolete) That which is seized.
6. (uncountable) A simple card game.

Synonyms

• catch
• clutch
• grasp
• seize
• snatch

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Arabic and Hindi ghurb?: crow, raven, a kind of Arab ship. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Noun

grab (plural grabs)

1. A two- or three-masted vessel used on the Malabar coast.

Alternative forms

• gurab

Anagrams

• ARGB, brag, garb

Lower Sorbian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *grabr?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?rap]

Noun

grab m

1. hornbeam (tree of genus Carpinus)

Declension

Further reading

• grab in Ernst Muka/Mucke (St. Petersburg and Prague 1911–28): S?ownik dolnoserbskeje r?cy a jeje nar?cow / Wörterbuch der nieder-wendischen Sprache und ihrer Dialekte. Reprinted 2008, Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag
• grab in Manfred Starosta (1999): Dolnoserbsko-nimski s?ownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch. Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag.

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?rap/

Etymology 1

From Proto-Slavic *grab(r)?, from Proto-Indo-European *gr?b?-

Noun

grab m inan

1. hornbeam, any tree of genus Carpinus.

Declension

Derived terms

• (adjective) grabowy
• (nouns) grabina, grabniak

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Noun

grab f

1. genitive plural of graba

Verb

grab

1. second-person singular imperative of grabi?

Further reading

• grab in Wielki s?ownik j?zyka polskiego, Instytut J?zyka Polskiego PAN
• grab in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *grab(r)?, from Proto-Indo-European *gr?b?-

Noun

grab m (Cyrillic spelling ????)

1. hornbeam

Declension

Thai

Romanization

grab

1. Romanization of ????