twinge

verb

1. (intransitive)To have a sudden, pinching or sharp pain in a specific part of the body, like a twitch.

   “My side twinges if I sit too long.”

2. (dialectal, intransitive)To pull and twist.

   “That ring-dove, who was cooing half-a-mile away, has hushed his moan; that flock of long-tailed titmice, which were twinging and pecking about the fir-cones a few minutes since, are gone; and now there is not even a gnat to quiver in the slant sun-rays.”

3. (dialectal, obsolete, transitive)To pull and twist (someone or something); to pinch, to tweak, to twitch, to wring.

   “I tell thee, I do vſe to teare their hair, to kick them, and to tvvindge their noſes, if they be not carefull in auoiding me.”

   “Thus Captaine Beſſus, thus; thus tvvinge your noſe, thus kicke, thus tread you.”

   “Eaſe his pockets / Of a ſuperfluous VVatch, or geld a ievvell / Of an odde ſtone, or ſo. Tvvinge three or foure buttons / From off my Ladyes govvne. Theſe are the arts / Or ſeuen liberall deadly ſciences / of Pagery, or rather Paganiſme, / As the tides run.”

   “[E]ntring into the pores of the ſkin, it [coldness] keeps back and drives in again the little bodies of heat, by oppoſing the bodies of cold, and vvith its little ſharp corners, it tears and tvvingeth all things vvhereſoever it paſſes.”

   “For vvhen a Man is paſt his Senſe, / There's no way to Reduce him thence, / But tvvinging him by th' Ears, or Noſe, / Or laying on of heavy Blovvs, / And if that vill not do the Deed, / To burning vvith Hot Irons proceed.”

4. (obsolete, transitive)To affect or torment (someone, their mind, or part of their body) with one or more sudden, pinching or sharp pains; to irritate.

   “For the Chiefeſt cauſe of pain in VVounds of the nerves is the excrementitious matter ſhut up; vvhich being overlong detayned getteth to it ſelf a depraved quality, pulleth and tvvingeth the Nerves, and at length putrifieth.”

   “The Gnat Charg'd into the Noſtrils of the Lyon, and there Tvving'd him, till he made him Tear himſelf vvith his Ovvn Pavvs. And in the Concluſion he Maſter'd the Lyon.”

   “[T]vving'd vvith pain, he penſive ſits, / And raves, and prays, and ſvvears by fits, […]”

5. (figuratively, obsolete, transitive)To prick or stimulate (one's conscience).

   “[N]othing did tvvinge my Conſcience like this: Every time that I thought of the Lord Jeſus, of his Grace, Love, Goodneſs, Kindneſs, Gentleneſs, Meekneſs, Death, Blood, Promiſes and bleſſed Exhortations, Comforts and Conſolations, it vvent to my Soul like a Svvord; […]”

   “[I]f any of his father's old notions of economy by chance twinged his conscience, Belle very judiciously asked how he ever came to think of her for a wife?”

   “The Archbishop of Liege, formerly a great adherent and ally of [Napoleon] Buonaparte, has found his conscience alarmingly twinged by so ominous a declaration on the part of a Calvinistic monarch, and has already made his remonstrance against this part of the proposed constitution in a pastoral letter, which is couched in a very determined language.”

noun

1. A sudden, pinching or sharp pain in a specific part of the body, especially one lasting for a short time.

   “I got a twinge in my arm.”

   “Sir Boun[teous Progress]. You feele as it vvere a tvvinge my Lord? / Folly-vv [i.e., Richard Follywit]. I, ee'n a tvvinge, you ſay right. / Sir Boun. A pox diſcouer e'm, that tvvinge I feele too.”

   “[T]he gout, […] gave him such severe twinges that it was plain enough how intolerable it would be if he were not well supplied with rings of rare virtue, and with an amulet worn close under the right breast.”

   “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. He must get back to the fireside and a hot-water bottle in the small of the back.”

2. (also, figuratively, rare)A turn, a twist.

   “"Easy!" exclaimed Arthur, a half-contemptuous twinge in his lip, and added: "I take it that the simple question with me is, what is right, and what is best."”

3. (figuratively)A sudden, sharp feeling of an emotional or mental nature, as of guilt or sadness; a pang, a paroxysm, a throe; also, a prick of the conscience.

   “a twinge of embarrassment”

   “[T]he VVickedneſs of this old Villain ſtartles me, and gives me a tvvinge for my ovvn Sin; though it come far ſhort of his: […]”

   “[W]ho vvould not rather Sleep Quietly upon a Hammock, vvithout either Cares in his Head, or Crudities in his Stomach, then lye Carking upon a Bed of State, vvith the Qualms and Tvvinges that accompany Surfeits and Exceſs?”

   “And not a tongue enquires, hovv, vvhere, or vvhen, / Though conſcience vvill have tvvinges novv and then; […]”

   “I believe it cost the vicar some twinges of conscience to persuade him that all I should want would be £40 a year; and it was very hard work, but at last we succeeded, and it was so settled.”

4. (figuratively)A sudden, sharp occurrence of something; a nip.
5. (UK, dialectal)Synonym of earwig (“insect of the order Dermaptera”).
6. (obsolete)An act of pulling and twisting; a pinch, a tweak, a twitch.

   “[T]he ſpirite of Jeſus hath (as it were) nipped my herte alſo with a litell twynge, […]”

   “For the tvvinge by th' noſe, / 'Tis certainly unſightly, ſo my tables ſaies, / But helpes againſt the head-ache, vvondrous ſtrangely.”

   “I VVonder (ſays a Sovv to a Spaniel) hovv you can Favvn thus upon a Maſter that gives you ſo many Blovvs, and Tvvinges by the Ears. VVell (ſays the Dog) but then ſet the Good Bits, and the Good VVords he gives me, againſt Thoſe Blovvs and Tvvinges, and I'm a Gainer by the Bargain.”

   “Gently thou joggest by a twinge the wit, […]”