twister n.
1. a voracious eater [twist (down) (apace) under twist v.].
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk V [Prologue] 497: O rare! belly on belly! what swillers and twisters will there be! |
2. in prizefighting, a blow in which the fist is twisted on impact.
| Pierce Egan’s Life in London 26 Sept. 5/2: Mat then placed a famous twister on the caput of his Lordship, which seemed to puzzle him, and he retreated. |
3. (US) a spree.
| ‘Ladies, Won’t You Marry?’ Prince of Wales’ Own Song Book 44: But talk about a dinner – by golly, dat was a twister. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Hans Breitmman’s Christmas’ in Hans Breitmann’s Party 32: But ven de valtz shtrike oopwart we most went out of fits, / Ash der Breitmann led off on a dwister mid de lofely Helmina Schmitz. |
4. in senses of ‘twisting the rules’.
(a) (UK Und.) an informer.
| Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 148: Peg [...] who, in the cant phrase of the day, in her own circles, was termed the twister, in consequence of SEVEN of her Fancy Men having met with accidents, otherwise been hung, which Peg jocularly called getting them ‘in a line!’. | |
| Swell’s Night Guide 68: She split on him [...] So-help my say so! send me to school, if she arnt a twister and no flies. |
(b) (UK/US Und.) a pickpocket, a thief.
| Chester Chron. 25 June 6/5: All the houses are brothels [...] or ‘padding-kens’ where the most desperate thieves resort [...] ‘Bludgeters,’ ‘Charley-pitchers,’ ‘Cracksmen,’ ‘Busmobs’ and ‘Wires,’ ‘Twisters,’ ‘Skinners,’ and ‘Snow-droppers’. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Melbourne Punch ‘City Police Court’ 3 Oct. n.p.: The Mayor.– Well, upon my sivvy, you’re a pretty pair of thimble twisters, you are; and it would serve you both right if you got scroby. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 26 Oct. n.p.: When ‘super twisters’ were in vogue, / And ‘cracksmen’ held the toe. | |
| Life In Sing Sing 257: Super-Twister. Pickpocket who steals watches. | |
| Keys to Crookdom 420: Super twister. Pickpocket who steals watches. | |
| Sharpe of the Flying Squad 204: Spivs, pickpockets, race-course twisters, and thugs dolled up to the nines. |
(c) as a term of address, with no negative implication.
| ‘’Arry on Ochre’ in Punch 15 Oct. 169/2: Twig, Charlie, old twister? |
(d) an untrustworthy person, a crook, a liar.
| Truth (Melbourne) 31 Jan. 2/3: [headline] Turf Twisters in Tasmania. Law Dodgers Unmolested by Officials or Police. | |
| ‘Comedians All’ Sporting Times 17 Apr. 1/2: The tradesmen the twisters are trying to ‘do,’ / And the twisters the tradesmen have ‘done.’. | |
| Sydney Morn. Herald 19 Apr. 7/8: Mr. John Lynch [...] denied the accusation of opponents that he was a ‘twister.’ He had consistently followed his convictions. | |
| Hull Dly Mail 19 Oct. 3/5: Twenty times defendant called him a ‘— flaming liar’ and ‘a — flaming twister’. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Juno and the Paycock Act III: You were goin’ to say somethin’ – don’t be a twisther. | |
 | ‘Nosey’ in Bulletin 24 June 29/2: ‘I knew he was a twister’. | |
| You’re in the Racket, Too 20: Old man Krebs, twister though he was, would never throw his own son-in-law out. | |
| Faustus Kelly in ‘Flann O’Brien’ Stories & Plays (1973) 138: It’s all down in your bloody little book, you Cork twister. | |
| Fowlers End (2001) 19: Some twister pays his fivepence — they make a pool, the bastards, an’ stake ’im — so ’e opens a side exit an’ ’alf a dozen of ’em slip in. | |
| All Night Stand 13: To all purposes he was a cheap crook, a swindling twister and one of Lewis’s. | |
| The Roy Murphy Show (1973) 121: I’m awake up to you ... you ... twister. | |
| London Embassy 163: A double-entry man. Hong Kong’s full of them. Twisters. | |
| Guardian G2 26 Mar. 7: This means I’ll have to live for decades until I’m almost a walking corpse before I get my money back from these twisters. |
(e) a homosexual.
| Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen No. 11 40: Mary-Ann = Schimpfname fur homosexuelle Manner, ahnlich wie Sod, bugger, twister, (letzteres meistens von Soldaten gebraucht) usw [GS]. | |
| Other Love 160: In the guards homosexuals were known as ‘fitters’ and ‘twisters.’. | |
| Sl. and Euphemism. | |
| Forbidden Amer. Eng. 189: twister a person obsessed with adventuresome or perverse sexual acts. |
5. (US) a story, an extravagant, boastful tale.
| (con. 1843) White-Jacket (1990) 321: Among innumerable yarns and twisters reeled off in our maintop during our pleasant run to the north, none could match those of Jack Chase, our captain. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 20 Nov. 3/1: The doctor spun a very ingenious twister in defence. | |
| Seven Years of a Sailor’s Life 215: The men [...] begged for a yarn. ‘Well, lads, let me finish my smoke, and then I’ll spin you a twister.’. | |
| Herald (Fremantle, WA) 10 Oct. 4/1: So you think you’ll gammon the gumsuckers with that nice twister you’ve been spinning all over the colony? Why my old man says you must take us for a lot of adjective fools. | |
| Jasper Wkly Courier (IN) 1 Oct. 6/3: Well, clap a stopper on it just now, old chap [...] and by and by when you’re stronger you shall spin me the twister. | |
| Wops the Waif 2/1: He was spinning us a twister one day out o’ the Bible. | |
| Dead Bird (Sydney) 26 Oct. 2/1: They would not believe that twister. | |
| People You Know 122: ‘Come again,’ said the Wage-Earner, who was slow at catching these Ruskin Twisters. | |
| Buln-Buln and the Brolga (1948) 🌐 Fred was still bringing forth out of his treasury twisters old and new. | |
| Bully Hayes 6: First I’d like to hear the Colonel’s yarn about Bully Hayes losing his ear. I’m ready for a real twister. |
6. (US) something that causes a person to go into fig. contortions; thus knock a twister, to disconcert very much.
| ‘Ladies Don’t go Thieving’ in Victorian Street Ballads (1937) 46: Her husband when he heard the news / Received a regular twister. | |
| Post to Finish I 273: I have had too great a twister myself to offer further condolence. | |
| Forty Modern Fables 242: Every time they knocked him a twister he Fumbled it and fell over in the Tall Grass. | |
| (con. early 1950s) Valhalla 55: ‘He was a prisoner of war during Big Two.’ ‘Hellyea,’ Stack said excitedly. ‘I forgot to tell you that. And this is what’s the twister, really. [...] he was a POW right here.’. |
7. (Aus.) a mourning band wrapped around a hat.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Dec. 4/4: A tall, gaunt fellow in a suit of shoddy black, with a crape ‘twister’ on his ‘gossamer’ of some eighteen inches in depth. |
8. (US black) a door lock.
| N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 19 July 13: They flip the twister and spread wide the slammer. |
9. (US prison) a prison guard [they ‘twist’ or turn a key].
| Prison Sl. 97: Twister A prison guard assigned to a cellhouse. |
10. drug uses [one is SE twisted up by the drugs or their effects].
(a) a user of marijuana.
| ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 127/1: twister. [...] One who rolls his own twists, or marajuana cigarettes or, by extension, a marajuana addict. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Narcotics Lingo and Lore. |
(b) an injection of mixed narcotic drugs.
| ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in AS XIII:3 192/1: twister. 3. A speed-ball or whiz-bang. |
(c) fake withdrawal symptoms; one who is exhibiting them.
| ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 127/1: twister. 1. A feigned spasm. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
11. (US black) a front-door key; thus twister to the slammer, the door key.
| [ | | West. Australian (Perth) 25 Oct. 7/7: The police found that the back door had been opened with a piece of wire, known as a ‘twister,’ which is capable of unfastening any ordinary lock]. |
| in Chicago Defender 20 June 10: dictionary changes: ‘Twister to the slammer’ [...] key to the door. | |
| New Hepsters Dict. in Calloway (1976) 260: twister to the slammer (n .): the key to the door. | |
| Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 65: They flip the twister an’ open the slammer. | |
| ‘“Hipster” Rev. Dict.’ Mad mag. Oct. 20: key – twister. | |
| Airtight Willie and Me 40: I dropped the twister to Phil’s pad on the table. [Ibid.] 103: Get me the dup twister to the joint where the deal goes down. |
12. (US Und.) a beggar or drug addict who can fake convincing fits in order to obtain money or drugs.
| et al. DAUL 230/1: Twister. A beggar or a junkey who throws fits of convincing character. |
In phrases
to perform in an outstanding manner.
| ‘Hectic Harlem’ in N.Y. Amsterdam News 8 Feb. sect. 2: CUT-BACK-A-TWISTER. – A superlative performance, or action. |
(US drugs) to throw a fake withdrawal fit in the hope of obtaining narcotics from a doctor.
| ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in AS XIII:3 102/2: To FRAME A TWISTER or A TOSSOUT. To feign a spasm in order to obtain narcotics from a doctor. | |
| Narcotics Lingo and Lore 63: Frame a twister – Of a drug addict, to feign a fit or spasm. |
to amaze.
| ‘Jim Marshall’s New Pianner’ Tramp Poems 9: He had a sister That could play the Suannee River till ’twould knock us all a twister. | |
| ‘The New Fable of Susan and the Daughter’ in Ade’s Fables 221: Frances, daughter of Hiram and Jennie, had knocked the Town a Twister when she came home from the Female College wearing Bangs and toting a Tennis Racquet. |