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Twig vs Bark - What's the difference?

twig | bark |

As nouns the difference between twig and bark

is that twig is a small thin branch of a tree or bush while bark is (three-masted vessel).

As a verb twig

is to beat with twigs or twig can be (colloquial|regional) to realise something; to catch on or twig can be (obsolete|scotland) to twitch; to pull; to tweak.

twig

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) twigge, from (etyl) . More at two.

Noun

(wikipedia twig) (en noun)
  • A small thin branch of a tree or bush.
    • They used twigs and leaves as a base to start the fire.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1907, author=
    • , title=The Dust of Conflict , chapter=1 citation , passage=A beech wood with silver firs in it rolled down the face of the hill, and the maze of leafless twigs and dusky spires cut sharp against the soft blueness of the evening sky.}}
    Derived terms
    *

    Verb

    (twigg)
  • To beat with twigs.

    • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) and (etyl) .

    Verb

    (twigg)
  • (colloquial, regional) To realise something; to catch on.
  • :* He hasn't twigged that we're planning a surprise party for him.
  • * {{quote-web
    • , date=2012-05-30 , year= , first= , last= , author=John E. McIntyre , authorlink= , title=A future for copy editors , site=Baltimore Sun citation , archiveorg= , accessdate= , passage= Well, with fewer people doing two or three times the work, you may have already twigged to this. }}
  • To understand the meaning of (a person); to comprehend.
    • Do you twig me?
  • To observe slyly; also, to perceive; to discover.
  • * Foote
    • Now twig him; now mind him.
  • * Hawthorne
    • as if he were looking right into your eyes and twigged something there which you had half a mind to conceal

    Etymology 3

    Compare tweak.

    Verb

    (twigg)
  • (obsolete, Scotland) To twitch; to pull; to tweak.
    • (Webster 1913)

    bark

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) barken, berken, borken, from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make a short, loud, explosive noise with the vocal organs (said of animals, especially dogs).
    • The neighbour's dog is always barking .
    The seal barked as the zookeeper threw fish into its enclosure.
  • To make a clamor; to make importunate outcries.
  • * (rfdate), Tyndale.
    • They bark , and say the Scripture maketh heretics.
  • * (rfdate), Fuller
    • Where there is the barking of the belly, there no other commands will be heard, much less obeyed. .
  • To speak sharply.
    • The sergeant barked an order.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
    • , date=January 5 , author=Mark Ashenden , title=Wolverhampton 1 - 0 Chelsea , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=While McCarthy prowled the touchline barking orders, his opposite number watched on motionless and expressionless and, with 25 minutes to go, decided to throw on Nicolas Anelka for Kalou.}}
    Usage notes
    Historically, bork'' existed as a past tense form and ''borken as a past participle, but both forms are now obsolete.
    Derived terms
    * bark up the wrong tree * barking * barking dogs never bite * bebark * dogs bark *
    Synonyms
    * latrate (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The short, loud, explosive sound uttered by a dog.
  • A similar sound made by some other animals.
  • (figuratively) An abrupt loud vocal utterance.
  • * circa 1921 , The Cambridge History of English and American Literature , vol 11:
    • Fox’s clumsy figure, negligently dressed in blue and buff, seemed unprepossessing; only his shaggy eyebrows added to the expression of his face; his voice would rise to a bark in excitement.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) bark, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (wikipedia bark)
  • (countable, uncountable) The exterior covering of the trunk and branches of a tree.
  • * '>citation
    • Moving about 70 miles per hour, it crashed through the sturdy old-growth trees, snapping their limbs and shredding bark from their trunks.
  • (medicine) Peruvian bark or Jesuit's bark, the bark of the cinchona from which quinine is produced.
  • The crust formed on barbecued meat that has had a rub applied to it.
  • * 2009 , Julie Reinhardt, She-Smoke: A Backyard Barbecue Book , page 151:
    • This softens the meat further, but at some loss of crunch to the bark .
    Usage notes
    Usually uncountable; bark may be countable when referring to the barks of different types of tree.
    Synonyms
    * (exterior covering of a tree) rind
    Related terms
    * ringbark * paperbark * stringybark

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To strip the bark from; to peel.
  • To abrade or rub off any outer covering from.
    • to bark one’s heel
  • To girdle.
  • To cover or inclose with bark, or as with bark.
    • bark the roof of a hut

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) , from Egyptian b?re .

    Alternative forms

    * barque

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A small sailing vessel, e.g. a pinnace or a fishing smack; a rowing boat or barge.
  • (poetic) a sailing vessel or boat of any kind.
  • * circa 1609 , William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116:
    • It is the star to every wandering bark
  • * circa 1880 , among the Poems of Emily Dickinson:
    • Whether my bark went down at sea, Whether she met with gales,
  • (nautical) A three-masted vessel, having her foremast and mainmast square-rigged, and her mizzenmast schooner-rigged.

    • Anagrams

    * English terms with multiple etymologies ----