different between twitch vs quiver

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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kw?v?/
• (General American, Canada) enPR: kw??v?r, IPA^(key): /?kw?v??/
• Rhymes: -?v?(?)
• Hyphenation: qui?ver

Etymology 1

From Middle English quiver, from Anglo-Norman quivre, from Old Dutch cocare (source of Dutch koker, and cognate to Old English cocer (“quiver, case”)), from Proto-West Germanic *kukur (“container”), said to be from Hunnic, possibly from Proto-Mongolic *kökexür (“leather vessel for liquids”); see there for more. Replaced early modern English cocker, the inherited reflex of that West Germanic word.

Noun

quiver (plural quivers)

1. (weaponry) A container for arrows, crossbow bolts or darts, such as those fired from a bow, crossbow or blowgun.
   • 1598, William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, Act I, Scene I, line 271:

     Don Pedro: Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly.

   • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 39:

     Arrows were carried in quiver, called also an arrow case, which served for the magazine, arrows for immediate use were worn in the girdle.

2. (figuratively) A ready storage location for figurative tools or weapons.

   He's got lots of sales pitches in his quiver.

3. (obsolete) The collective noun for cobras.
4. (mathematics) A multidigraph.

Derived terms

• quiverful

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English quiver, cwiver, from Old English *cwifer, probably related to cwic (“alive”).

Adjective

quiver (comparative more quiver, superlative most quiver)

1. (archaic) Nimble, active.
   • 1598, William Shakespeare, Henry V, Part II, Act III, Scene II, line 281:

     [...] there was a little quiver fellow, and 'a would manage you his piece thus; and 'a would about and about, and come you in and come you in.

Etymology 3

From Middle English quiveren, probably from the adjective.

Verb

quiver (third-person singular simple present quivers, present participle quivering, simple past and past participle quivered)

1. (intransitive) To shake or move with slight and tremulous motion

   Synonyms: tremble, quake, shudder, shiver

   • And left the limbs still quivering on the ground.

Derived terms

• aquiver
• quivering
• quiversome

Translations

References

Further reading

• quiver on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Anglo-Norman quivre, from Old Dutch cocare; perhaps ultimately from Proto-Mongolic *kökexür or Hunnic. Doublet of coker.

Alternative forms

• quyver, qwyver, qwywere, qwyvere, whyver

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kwiv?r/

Noun

quiver (plural quivers)

1. A quiver (a receptacle for arrows)
2. (rare, vulgar) A vulva.

Descendants

• English: quiver

References

• “quiver, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-04.

Etymology 2

From Old English *cwifer, probably related to cwic (“alive”).

Alternative forms

• quyver, quyvere, cwiver

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kwiv?r/

Adjective

quiver

1. fast, speedy, rapid
2. energetic, vigourous, vibrant

Descendants

• English: quiver

References

• “quiver, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-04.