Twerk

//twɜɹk// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Synonym of twerking (“a sexually-provocative dance, involving the performer thrusting their hips back from a low squatting stance while shaking their buttocks”).

    "It was the twerk that bounced around the world in less than a day. Sound bites from reporters said, “Miley Cyrus’s JAW-DROPPING TWERK-a-thon,” the “twerk-tacular,” “twerk-and-tongue work,” in the “twerk seen ’round the world!”"

  2. 2
    A puny or insignificant person, generally male; a twerp. US, dated, slang

    ""'...but when they load a pack onto you, what'll you do? A little twerk like you?'""

  3. 3
    An abrupt call, such as that made by the California quail.

    "Note of male on territory, a loud kurr or twerk."

  4. 4
    A fitful movement similar to a twitch or jerk. dated

    ""Not so the Freycineti, who looked me over critically, elevated his head crest, and giving his tail an odd little twerk, proceeded to hop deliberately up the limb like a sap-sucker...""

Verb
  1. 1
    To dance in a sexually-provocative way using hip thrusts in a low squatting stance while shaking the buttocks; to take part in twerking.

    "Gaea then stood up over me and turned so that her butt was facing me. She then had the nerve to start twerking."

  2. 2
    to dance with thrusting hip movements and a low squatting stance wordnet
  3. 3
    To twitch or jerk. dated

    "[…] in the language of the unsophisticated Port Melbourne suburbanite a bed was still something primarily intended for love-making – all the eyebrow-raising and moustache-twerking in Jo'burg couldn't alter that."

Synonyms

All synonyms
twerkingtwerptwerpweakling

Example

More examples

"It was the twerk that bounced around the world in less than a day. Sound bites from reporters said, “Miley Cyrus’s JAW-DROPPING TWERK-a-thon,” the “twerk-tacular,” “twerk-and-tongue work,” in the “twerk seen ’round the world!”"

Etymology

Etymology 1

Blend of twitch + jerk. The "sexually-provocative dance" sense was particularly popularized since c. 2000 by hip-hop from the United States of America, and again in 2013 by singer Miley Cyrus.

Etymology 2

Blend of twerp + jerk, found primarily in the 1930s-era works of Walter Dumaux Edmonds.

Etymology 3

Onomatopoeic, possibly coined by Roger Tory Peterson.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.