Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Scot. Und.) stealing shawls from women wearing them in the street.

1822

Life and Trial of James Mackcoull 9: His forte consisted in what it called clicking and twitching, in entries to courts where places of amusement or private meeting-houses were situated * Stealing hats from gentlemen’s heads, and shawls from ladies’ shoulders.

2. (drugs) a nervous mannerism that afflicts regular users of crack cocaine.

1998

L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 116: Richard finds himself shelling out a couple hundred a day for Suzi’s buzz [...] between the twitching, the jonesing, and the nodding, he can hardly get a tongue in edgewise.