twinge
Etymology
From Middle English twengen, from Old English twenġan (“to pinch, squeeze, twinge”), from Proto-West Germanic *twangijan, from Proto-Germanic *twangijaną (“to jam, pinch”), causative of Proto-Germanic *twinganą (“to press, clamp”), of uncertain origin, but probably related to *þwangiz (“belt, strap, clamp”). See also Old High German zwengen (“to pinch”), Old English twingan (“to press, force”).
verb
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(transitive) To pull with a twitch; to pinch; to tweak. -
(transitive) To affect with a sharp, sudden pain; to torment with pinching or sharp pains. -
(intransitive) To have a sudden, sharp, local pain, like a twitch; to suffer a keen, darting, or shooting pain. My side twinges.
noun
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A pinch; a tweak; a twitch. -
A sudden sharp pain. I got a twinge in my arm.The two Gordon setters came obediently to heel. Sir Oswald Feiling winced as he turned to go home. He had felt a warning twinge of lumbago. 1935, Francis Beeding, “7/2”, in The Norwich Victims
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