Twerp
noun, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A fool, a twit. UK, colloquial
"Now you've broken it, you twerp!"
- 2 someone who is regarded as contemptible wordnet
- 3 A small or puny person; one regarded as insignificant, contemptible. US, childish, colloquial
"Get out of my way, you little twerp!"
- 4 A person who can be bullied playfully, or easily teased. Sometimes used as a pet-name (often for a younger sibling). US, childish, colloquial
Example
More examples""You prick! Have you lost your mind?!" "Probably. That miserable little twerp—" "So what? You lost your lair? Stop whining and make a greater lair next time." "There probably won't be a next time..." "Bring the castle back, or else!""
Etymology
Of uncertain origin; originally British slang of the 1910s. In a letter, dated 6 October 1944, J. R. R. Tolkien mentions a contemporary of his at Oxford University T.W. Earp, calling him "the original twerp"; but no corroborating evidence for this etymology has come to light. Other suggestions include: a clipping of Antwerp (“type of racing pigeon that flew between Antwerp and London”); the onomatopoeic twirp (“imitation of the sound of a bird”); a dialectal variant of dwarf (compare Middle English dwerf); Welsh twp (“a fool”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.