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

1. (transitive) To pull with a twitch; to pinch; to tweak.
2. (transitive) To affect with a sharp, sudden pain; to torment with pinching or sharp pains.
3. (intransitive) To have a sudden, sharp, local pain, like a twitch; to suffer a keen, darting, or shooting pain.
   My side twinges.

noun

1. A pinch; a tweak; a twitch.
2. 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