Twitch vs Lurch - What's the difference?
twitch | lurch | Related terms |
A brief, small (sometimes involuntary) movement out of place and then back again; a spasm.
(informal) Action of spotting or seeking out a bird, especially a rare one.
(farriery) A stick with a hole in one end through which passes a loop, which can be drawn tightly over the upper lip or an ear of a horse and twisted to keep the animal quiet during minor surgery.
To perform a twitch; spasm.
* (rfdate) — [http://www.mindspring.com/~randyhoward/new_page_6.htm]
* 1922 , (Margery Williams), (The Velveteen Rabbit)
*:Their feet padded softly on the ground, and they crept quite close to him, twitching their noses...
To jerk sharply and briefly.
* Alexander Pope
To spot or seek out a bird, especially a rare one.
* 1995 , Quarterly Review of Biology vol. 70 p. 348:
* 2003 , Mark Cocker, Birders: Tales of a Tribe [http://books.google.com/books?id=tv-Noj1Fvc0C], ISBN 0802139965, page 52:
* 2005 , Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch: One Man, One Continent, a Race Against Time [http://books.google.com/books?id=fWLmpqL4EMsC], ISBN 1741145287, page 119:
couch grass, Elymus repens ; a species of grass, often considered as a weed.
A sudden or unsteady movement.
* 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
To make such a sudden, unsteady movement.
(obsolete) To leave someone in the lurch; to cheat.
* South
(obsolete) To steal; to rob.
* Shakespeare
(obsolete) To swallow or eat greedily; to devour; hence, to swallow up.
* Francis Bacon
An old game played with dice and counters; a variety of the game of tables.
A double score in cribbage for the winner when his/her adversary has been left in the lurch.
* Walpole
Twitch is a related term of lurch.
As nouns the difference between twitch and lurch
is that twitch is a brief, small (sometimes involuntary) movement out of place and then back again; a spasm or twitch can be couch grass, elymus repens ; a species of grass, often considered as a weed while lurch is amphibian.As a verb twitch
is to perform a twitch; spasm.twitch
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) twicchen, from (etyl) twiccian, from (etyl) ).Noun
(es)- I saw a little twitch in the man's face, and knew he was lying.
Derived terms
* nervous twitchVerb
- "Why is it that you twitch whenever I say Faith?"
- to twitch somebody's sleeve for attention
- Thrice they twitched the diamond in her ear.
- "The Birdwatchers Handbook ... will be a clear asset to those who 'twitch' in Europe."
- "But the key revelation from twitching that wonderful Iceland Gull on 10 March 1974 wasn't its eroticism. It was the sheer innocence of it."
- "I hadn't seen John since I went to Adelaide to (unsuccessfully) twitch the '87 Northern Shoveler, when I was a skinny, eighteen- year-old kid. "
Usage notes
When used of birdwatchers by ignorant outsiders, this term frequently carries a negative connotation.Derived terms
* atwitchEtymology 2
alternate of quitchNoun
(-)lurch
English
Etymology 1
Noun
(es)- the lurch of a ship, or of a drunkard
- Yet I hoped by grouting at the earth below it to be able to dislodge the stone at the side; but while I was considering how best to begin, the candle flickered, the wick gave a sudden lurch to one side, and I was left in darkness.
Verb
(es)- Never deceive or lurch the sincere communicant.
- And in the brunt of seventeen battles since / He lurched all swords of the garland.
See also
* leave someone in the lurch *Etymology 2
(etyl) (lena) lurcare.Verb
(es)- Too far off from great cities, which may hinder business; too near them, which lurcheth all provisions, and maketh everything dear.
Etymology 3
(etyl) .Noun
- Lady Blandford has cried her eyes out on losing a lurch .