Twister

//ˈtwɪstɚ// name, noun, slang

name, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One who twists.
  2. 2
    small friedcake formed into twisted strips and fried; richer than doughnuts wordnet
  3. 3
    One who twists.; One whose occupation is to twist or join the threads of one warp to those of another, in weaving.
  4. 4
    a localized and violently destructive windstorm occurring over land characterized by a funnel-shaped cloud extending toward the ground wordnet
  5. 5
    An instrument used in twisting or making twists.

    "He, twirling his twister, makes a twist of the twine."

Show 7 more definitions
  1. 6
    A ball delivered with a twist, as in cricket or billiards.
  2. 7
    A tornado. colloquial
  3. 8
    A girder.
  4. 9
    The inner part of the thigh, the proper place to rest upon when on horseback. dated
  5. 10
    A crook, a villain. British, colloquial

    "“I don't know if it's my imagination, Kipper,” I said, “but something gives me the impression that at moment of going to press you aren't too sold on Bobbie.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Oh, I wouldn't say that. Apart from wishing I could throttle the young twister with my bare hands and jump on the remains with hobnailed boots, I don't feel much about her one way or the other.”"

  6. 11
    Any of species Tholymis tillarga of libellulid dragonfly, of tropical West Africa to Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.
  7. 12
    The party game Twister, usually capitalized, or a variant.
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A party game that requires several players on a single mat to straddle four colored rows of dots in randomly selected positions without falling.

    "In the foyer, a game of Twister has started. It's appealing because all of the women are wearing lowriders."

Example

More examples

"When the cow flies high and the ox flies low, there probably is a twister."

Etymology

From Middle English twyster, equivalent to twist + -er.

Related phrases

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