different between twig vs limb

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English twig, twyg, from Old English twi?, from Proto-Germanic *tw?g? (compare West Frisian twiich, Dutch twijg, German Zweig), from Proto-Indo-European *dweyg?om (compare Old Church Slavonic ????? (dvig?, “branch”), Albanian degë (“branch”)), from *dwóh?. More at two.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /tw??/, [t?w???]
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

twig (plural twigs)

1. A small thin branch of a tree or bush.

   They used twigs and leaves as a base to start the fire.

Synonyms

• tillow

Derived terms

• off one's twig
• twig and berries

Translations

Verb

twig (third-person singular simple present twigs, present participle twigging, simple past and past participle twigged)

1. (transitive) To beat with twigs.

Etymology 2

From Irish and Scottish Gaelic tuig (“to understand”).

Verb

twig (third-person singular simple present twigs, present participle twigging, simple past and past participle twigged)

1. (colloquial, regional) To realise something; to catch on; to recognize someone or something.
2. To understand the meaning of (a person); to comprehend.

3. To observe slyly; also, to perceive; to discover.

Synonyms

• (to realise something): clock, get it, notice; see also Thesaurus:identify
• (to understand the meaning): fathom, figure out, grasp, ken, work out
• (to observe slyly): check out, peep, spy on, surveil

Translations

Etymology 3

Compare tweak.

Verb

twig (third-person singular simple present twigs, present participle twigging, simple past and past participle twigged)

1. (obsolete, Scotland) To twitch; to pull; to tweak.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• (Early ME) twi, twi?
• twigge, twyg, twygge, tuyg

Etymology

From Old English tw?g, from Proto-Germanic *tw?g?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /twi?/, /twi?/

Noun

twig (plural twigges)

1. Any part of a tree, especially a branch or cutting:
   1. A twig or tillow; a shoot branching off a tree.
   2. A easily bending branch used in crafts.
2. (figuratively, rare) A subtype or part of something; the result or descendant of something.

Descendants

• English: twig
• Scots: twigg, tuigg

References

• “twig, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-08-08.

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *twig?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /twij/

Noun

twi? n

1. twig
2. branch

Declension

Descendants

• Middle English: twig
  • English: twig

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l?m/
• Rhymes: -?m
• Homophones: limn, Lymm

Etymology 1

From Middle English lyme, lim, from Old English lim (“limb, branch”), from Proto-Germanic *limuz (“branch, limb”). Cognate with Old Norse limr (“limb”). The silent -b began to appear in the late 1500s.

Noun

limb (plural limbs)

1. A major appendage of human or animal, used for locomotion (such as an arm, leg or wing).

   • Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with […] on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.

2. A branch of a tree.

   Synonym: bough

3. (archery) The part of the bow, from the handle to the tip.
4. An elementary piece of the mechanism of a lock.
5. A thing or person regarded as a part or member of, or attachment to, something else.
6. (botany) The part of a corolla beyond the throat.
7. Short for limb of Satan (“a wicked or mischievous child”).

Derived terms

• go out on a limb
• life and limb

Translations

Verb

limb (third-person singular simple present limbs, present participle limbing, simple past and past participle limbed)

1. (transitive) To remove the limbs from (an animal or tree).

2. (transitive) To supply with limbs.
   • 1859, Henry D. Thoreau, Walden

     Man was not made so large limbed and robust but that he must seek to narrow his world and wall in a space such as fitted him.

Synonyms

• delimb

Translations

Etymology 2

From Latin limbus (“border”).

Noun

limb (plural limbs)

1. (astronomy) The apparent visual edge of a celestial body.

   solar limb

2. (on a measuring instrument) The graduated edge of a circle or arc.
3. (botany) The border or upper spreading part of a monopetalous corolla, or of a petal or sepal; blade.

Translations

See also

Anagrams

• blim