Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to hang, to be hanged; thus as excl. twist me! [lit./fig. twisting on the rope].

1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: His Colquarron is just about to be twisted. He is just going to be turn’d off.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		J. Mackcoull Abuses of Justice 33: Nothing short of my death should appease him, and of that he was now certain, for that I should as surely be twisted.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: The kiddy dropped down when he went to be twisted; the young fellow was very low spirited when he walked out to be hanged.
1827		Egan Anecdotes of the Turf, the Chase etc. 182: harry might either be lagged or twisted.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford III 246: Poor Harry was twisted shortly after.
1834		W.A. Caruthers Kentuckian in N.Y. I 29: And, twist me, if I didn’t feel as if I was about to be nicked.
1859		‘Scene in a London Flash-Panny’ Matsell Vocabulum 100: If I wished to nose I could have you twisted.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 90: Twisted [...] hanged.

2. in senses of ‘twisting the rules’.

3. (UK Und.) to steal a watch by first snapping and twisting off its ring; thus twisting adj.

1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 7/1: A song was called for by old ‘Kill-the-Bull,’ a veteran of the ‘twisting school.’.
1904		‘Number 1500’ Life In Sing Sing 253: Twist. to snap the ring of a watch. [Ibid.] 257: Super-Twister. Pickpocket who steals watches.

4. (Aus.) to be convicted of a crime.

1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 90: Twisted, convicted.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Twist. [...] to be convicted of a crime.

5. (US, also twist a burn) to roll a cigarette.

1913		B.T. Harvey ‘Word-List From The Northwest’ in DN IV:i 28: twist, v. To roll a cigarette. ‘Twist me one.’.
1944		P. Kendall Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: twist a dizzy . . . roll a cigaret.
1947–53		W. Guthrie Seeds of Man (1995) 258: I couldn’y hold my han’ still enough right now ta twist up anuther cigarette.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 230/1: Twist one. (P) To roll a cigarette.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 241/1: twist a burn – roll a cigarette.
1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 217: twist one up, v. – to roll a cigarette.
1997		Eble Campus Sl. Fall.

6. (drugs) to roll a marijuana cigarette.

1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 245: twist a dream To roll a cigarette; to roll a marihuana cigarette.
1973		D. Goines Street Players 7: You can twist me another, as long as you’re at it, man.
1997		Eble Campus Sl. Fall.
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 twist Definition: to roll and smoke a blunt (joint). Example: Yo, chill, nigga...lay back and twist one.

7. to leave.

1957

C. MacInnes City of Spades (1964) 97: Oh, blow, man [...] Twist now — you dig?