Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 7.pdf/247

 Twigger, subs. (venery).—1. A harlot; (2) a wencher. [In Tusser, Husb., 'Jan.' = a good breeder.] Twigle = to copulate (Halliwell).

1612. Pasquil's Night Cap. Now, Benedicite, her mother said; And hast thou beene already such a twigger.

c. 1613. Middleton, No Wit, etc., iv. 1. The mother of her was a good twigger the whilst.

1694. Motteux, Rabelais, v., 'Pant. Prog.' Twiggers, harlots, kept wenches.

Twilight, subs. (old).—A corruption of toilet: (old) a dressing-cloth, towel, or napkin.

1684. Dryden, Disappointment, Prol., 50. A twillet, dressing-box, and half a crown.

c. 1690. Ladies' Dict. A toilet is a little cloth which ladies use for what purpose they think fit, and is by some corruptly called a twylight.

1706. Fifteen Comforts of Matrimony. Fine twi-lights, blankets, and the Lord knows what.

1853. Bradley, Verdant Green, ii. vii. It was no use doing the downy again, so it was just as well to make one's twilight and go to chapel.

Twine, verb. (thieves').—To ring the changes (q.v.).

Twinkler, subs. (colloquial).—1. In pl. = the eyes. Also (2) a star, and (3) a light (thieves').

1380. Wyclif, Ecclus, vii. 25. The twynclere with the e[=yogh]e forgeth wicke thingus.

d. 1704. Brown, Works, i. 267. I no sooner saw your Ladyship, but those everlasting Murderers, your Twinklers, prick'd and stabb'd me in a thousand Parts of my body.

1705. Vanbrugh, Confederacy, iii. 2. Aram. The stars have done this. Clar. The pretty little twinklers.

1813. Shelley, Queen Mab, ix. Such tiny twinklers as the planet-orbs.

1837. Marryat, Snarley-yow, i. vii. Following me up and down with those twinklers of yours.

Twinkling. See Bedpost.

Twins. To have twins, verb. phr. (American).—To take dinner and tea at one meal; to box Harry (q.v.).

Twire (Tweer, Tour, and Towre).—1. To peep, to look round cautiously, to peer: cf. Tower. [Tour (the canting form: see Tower) possibly originated in twire being carelessly written.] Whence (2) (old) = to leer, to 'make eyes.' As subs. = a glance, a leer. Twirepipe = a peeping Tom.

1598. Shakspeare, Sonnets, 28. So flatter I the swart-complexion'd night; When sparkling stars twire not, thou gildst the even.

1602. Marston, Antonio and Mellida, iv. In good sadness, I would have sworn I had seen Mellida even now; for I saw a thing stir under a hedge, and I peep'd, and I spied a thing, and I peer'd and I tweer'd underneath.

1604. Moffat, Father Hubbard's Tales. The tweering constable of Finsbury.

1619. Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas, iii. 1. You are a twire-pipe, A Jeffrey John Bo-peep. Ibid. (c. 1620), Women Pleased, iv. 1. I saw the wench that twir'd and twinkled at thee The other day.

1637. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 1. Which maids will twire at 'tween their fingers thus.

1676. Etherege, Man of Mode, iii. 3. The silly By-words, and Amorous Tweers in passing.

1722. Steele, Conscious Lovers, i. 1. If I was rich I could twire and loll as well as the best of them.

1822. Scott, Fort. Nigel. Tour the bien mort twiring the gentry cove.

Twirl, subs. (thieves').—A skeleton key: see Jemmy.