Green’s Dictionary of Slang

twitch n.2

[SE twitch: ‘a noose or loop; spec. a noose which may be tightened by twisting the stick to the end of which it is attached, used to compress the lip or muzzle of a horse to restrain him during a painful operation’ OED]

(US Und.) an instrument of torture; see cit. 1937.

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[US]E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 10: ‘What’s a twitch?’ [...] ‘Get you a piece of window cord and make a little stick with a hole in it and fix a loop and just put that around a man’s head and give it a twist and he’s gonna think his brains are coming out of his ears.’.

In phrases

put the twitch on (v.)

(Aus.) to trick, to defraud .

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C. Drew ‘Nosey’ in Bulletin 24 June 28/1: There’s blokes in the country who ain’t no more to be trusted than an emu in a cockroach farm. Take the chap who tried to put the twitch on me and Melbourne Fred .