different between yank vs twitch

English

Etymology 1

Attested since 1822; from Scots yank. Unknown origin.

Pronunciation

• enPR: y?ngk, IPA^(key): /jæ?k/
• Rhymes: -æ?k

Noun

yank (plural yanks)

1. A sudden, vigorous pull (sometimes defined as mass times jerk, or rate of change of force).
2. (slang) A masturbation session.
   • 2012, Bonnie Dee, Summer Devon, Serious Play (page 81)

     He rested his hand on his bare chest, an innocent enough spot, but soon it drifted of its own accord down his stomach to slide beneath the waistband of his briefs. Fine. A quick yank would relieve the sexual tension that simmered in him.

Synonyms

• (sudden, vigorous pull): jerk, tug

Translations

Verb

yank (third-person singular simple present yanks, present participle yanking, simple past and past participle yanked)

1. (transitive) To pull (something) with a quick, strong action.
   • 2015, Elizabeth Royte, Vultures Are Revolting. Here’s Why We Need to Save Them., National Geographic (December 2015)[1]

     Now a white-backed rams its head down the wildebeest’s throat and yanks out an eight-inch length of trachea, ribbed like a vacuum hose.

2. (transitive, informal) To remove from distribution.

   They yanked the product as soon as they learned it was unsafe.

Synonyms

• (pull with a quick strong action): jerk, tug
• (remove from circulation): pull, recall

Derived terms

• yanker
• yank someone's chain

Translations

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “yank”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Etymology 2

Clipping of yankee

Noun

yank (plural yanks)

1. (often derogatory) A Yankee.

Scots

Etymology

Unknown; likely imitative. Compare whang (“a blow”).

Noun

yank (plural yanks)

1. a sudden tug, a jerk, a yank
2. a blow, a slap

Verb

yank (third-person singular present yanks, present participle yankin, past yankt, past participle yankt)

1. to jerk, to pull suddenly
2. to move quickly or in a lively manner

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