Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a girl, a woman.

1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Dec. 4/8: Me an’ my twist (indicating a frowsy female) and me cobber an’ ee’s twist (pointing to another choice couple) [etc.].
1920		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 84: The skinny guy bought his twist a whole new set of summer scenery last week an she took a runout powder on him.
1931		C.B. Yorke ‘Mob Murder’ in Gangland Stories Mar. 🌐 I’m not getting a slug in the back from a twist who’d try to trap a guy like this.
1945		R.L. Bellem ‘Coffin for a Coward’ in Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 I hated to see him get messed up in a common restaurant brawl with a twist like Janet Moore.
1951		M. Spillane Long Wait (1954) 72: She was a good-looking twist if you didn’t get too close.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 822: twist – A woman, especially one with loose or ‘twisted’ morals.
1972		J. Wambaugh Blue Knight 114: Sexy little twist [...] a good body.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 43: There’s no justice [...] That twist I seen you with the other day. A twist like that, a gonif like you.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 99: Dot and the girl kept a thing sizzling whenever she did time. Dot got the little twist sprung.
1997–2000		College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Skill twist (noun) A good fuck (sexual experience).
2007		T. Dorsey Hurricane Punch 20: You needed to lean on a twist, throw hopheads a yard, throw lead, no one snooped.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 5: He was [...] poking two underage twists.

2. the passive member of a lesbian relationship.

1970

J.P. Stanley ‘Homosexual Sl.’ in AS XLV:1/2 59: twist n Passive member of a lesbian relationship.

3. a male homosexual.

1963

in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 31: The creep took presents from this twist. Jolly John [...] this great big fruit.

4. (US prison) a prostitute.

1971–2

C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 217: twist, n. – a prostitute.