[f. TWINE v.1 + -ER1.]
1. One who or that which twines; esp. one who or a machine that twines or spins thread: see quot. 1891.
1611. Cotgr., Retordeur, a twister, twiner; a wrester, a retorter.
1708. Sewel, II. Twynder, a twiner, throster.
1864. Jeffrey, Hist. Roxburghshire, IV. ii. 117. In 1810 the twiner was invented by William Johnstone, Galashiels.
1885. Pall Mall G., 7 Oct., 7/2. The Huddersfield operative cotton twiners, after being out on strike … resumed work yesterday.
1891. Labour Commission Gloss., Twiners, operative spinners who double yarn which has been spun by the common spinners.
2. A plant of twining habit.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 32. Schizandra is scarcely a twiner.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., vii. (1880), 198. Plants became twiners … by the increase of a tendency to slight and irregular revolving movements.
1885. Goodale, Physiol. Bot. (1892), 405. Twiners are distinguished from proper climbers by the absence of any special organs, other than the stem itself for grasping supports.
