ppl. a. [f. as prec. + -ED1.]
† 1. Divided, branching. Obs. rare–1.
1398. [see TWIST v.1].
2. Consisting of two or more threads, strands, or the like twined together; (of a thread or strand) formed into a cord by being intertwined with another or others; made of spun or doubled thread, or by spinning; also transf. wreathed, plaited, interwoven.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VI., 135. An indissoluble knot, like the twisted tree, whiche cannot seuer.
1573–80. Baret, Alv., T 456. Twined or twisted thred, filum retortum.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. xi. 22. In a canvas thin he was bedight, And girded with a belt of twisted brake.
a. 1603. Council Order, in Antiq. Rep. (1807), I. 23. Twisted with two rows of twisted lace russet … the clothe itself set with the said twisted lace.
1609. Bible (Douay), Exod. xxxvi. 8. Ten curtines of twisted silke, and hyacinth, and purple, and scarlet twise died.
1718. Blackmore, Alfred, III. (1723), 92. Cables in Rings,… Their twisted Lengths voluminous enfold.
1718. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Mrs. Thistlethwayte, 25 Sept. We began to ascend Mount Cenis, being carried in little seats of twisted osiers.
1757. Gray, Bard, 5. Helm, nor Hauberk’s twisted mail.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, V. 135. Blood spouted through his twisted mail.
1794. Southey, Slave Trade, iv. 7. No tear escaped him, not one suffering groan Beneath the twisted thong.
1825. Scott, Talism., iii. Mattresses, wrought of twisted flags, lay by the side of the cell.
1835. T. Mitchell, Acharn. of Aristoph., 400, note. A round twisted basket, in which any thing was carried.
1895. Scully, Kafir Stories, 24. A musical instrument … consisted of a stick about three feet long, bent into a bow by a string made of twisted sinews.
† b. fig. Intimately associated or connected; united; combined; also, consisting of two elements united. Obs.
1573–80. Baret, Alv., T 460. Twisted together, hard to be loosed, intricate, doubtfull.
1642. Gauden, Three Serm., 29. Hypocrisie is a double and twisted impiety.
1655. W. Hammond, Poems (1906), 500. Our twisted lives must be cut both Together.
1665. Glanvill, Scepsis Sci., Addr. A iv. Their … deep Sagacity, twisted Endeavours, ample Fortunes, and all other advantages.
3. Wrung out of shape; distorted; contorted; turned or bent awry; spec. in Bot. = CONTORTED 2; crooked, tortuous, winding; turned or wrung spirally, of coiled or screw-like form, spiral or helical; in Geom. applied to curves in space, as twisted Cartesian, t. cubic, etc. (see CURVATURE 1 b); also, involved, tangled, confused.
1725. W. Halfpenny, Sound Building, 13. The two different Edges of a Twisted Schofeet.
1776. Withering, Brit. Plants (1796), II. 319. Parnassia…. Stem somewhat twisted.
1782. A. Monro, Compar. Anat., 167. The eight upper ribs were formerly classed into pairs,…to wit, the crooked, the solid, the pectoral, the twisted.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 135. Siliquaria, Lam.—Serpula, Lin. Shell tubular, irregularly twisted.
1830. Carlyle, Richter Again, Ess. 1840, II. 297. Abounding … in the most twisted phraseology.
1831. Scott, Cast. Dang., xvii. A clear fountain of living water bubbled forth from under the twisted roots of one of those trees.
1842. Bischoff, Woollen Manuf., II. 355. They [horns] protrude nearly at right angles from the head, and then become twisted in a singular way.
1854. Murchison, Siluria, v. 93. Highly twisted micaceous schists.
a. 1861. T. Woolner, My Beautiful Lady, Her Gard., iv. The mad gale had … fiercely blown The stalks [of the lilies] in twisted heaps.
1876. Hooker, Bot. Primer, 68. Twisted, when each overlaps by one margin the contiguous margin of that next to it.
1894. H. Nisbet, Bush Girl’s Rom., 240. Worrogonga handed to her a small twisted note.
4. In special collocations: twisted bit, a bit of which the mouthpiece consists of a square bar spirally twisted; also in Carpentry: see quot.; twisted drill = twist-drill (TWIST sb.1 22); twisted flower, rendering of Strophanthus, name of a genus of tropical shrubs, natives of Asia and Africa, esp. applied to those species cultivated for the singularity of their flowers (Cent. Dict., 1891); twisted horn = TWISTY sb.; twisted mouth: see quot.; twisted pillar, a pillar having the appearance of being spirally twisted, or apparently consisting of two shafts intertwined; twisted pine, Pinus contorta, a small pine of the Pacific coast of North America, the twisted-branched pine; also P. Teocote of Mexico; twisted stalk, rendering of Streptopus, name of a genus of perennial herbaceous plants bearing bell-shaped flowers with curious bent stalks; twisted stick = twisted horn; twisted suture: see quot.; † twisted tree, ? a branch of willow or other tree formerly used in connection with Easter celebrations.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Twisted bit..., a wood-boring tool adapted to be used in a brace. It is a … flat bar twisted into a spiral form and provided … with a cutter and a routing-table.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 95. For long holes of small diameter a *twisted drill is desirable.
1866. *Twisted horn [see TWISTY sb.].
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Twisted mouth (Manège), a bit whose mouthpiece has been twisted, to make it more severe than it otherwise would be.
1717. Berkeley, Tour in Italy, Wks. 1871, IV. 550. The altars generally adorned with *twisted pillars.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), IV. 77. The great altar has sixteen twisted pillars of white and green marble.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, I. 238. Balustrades and windows with twisted pillars.
1866. Treas. Bot., s.v. Pine, *Twisted pine, Pinus Teocote.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., Pine-tree, Twisted Mexican, Pinus Teocote.
1856. A. Gray, Man. Bot. (1860), 474. Streptopus, *Twisted-stalk.
1866. *Twisted stick [see TWISTY sb.].
1767. Gooch, Treat. Wounds, I. 154. The *twisted-suture … is performed by introducing one, two or more, needles or pins through the whole substance of the lips of the wound, twisting a waxed thread neatly about them, in the form of a figure of 8.
1598. Stow, Surv., 72. In the weeke before Easter had yee great shewes made for the fetching in of a *twisted Tree, or With, as they termed it, out of the woodes into the kinges house, and the like into euery mans house of honor or worship.
5. Comb., as twisted-branched, -convolute, -locked.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 131. Æstivation for the most part twisted-convolute.
1862. Eng. Wom. Dom. Mag., IV. 218. Those frizzly-haired, lank-haired, twisted-locked, top-knotted foreigners.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., Pinus contorta, twisted-branched pine.
Hence Twistedly adv., in a twisted manner.
1910. Westm. Gaz., 2 Feb., 8/2. Every single strand of the tobacco smokes perpendicularly downwards instead of horizontally across, or twistedly diagonal.
1915. W. H. L. Watson, in Blackw. Mag., May, 590/1. And you must see it to know what a twistedly pathetic thing a battery team and limber without a gun is.
