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Twitch vs Tetanus - What's the difference?

twitch | tetanus |

As nouns the difference between twitch and tetanus

is that twitch is a brief, small (sometimes involuntary) movement out of place and then back again; a spasm while tetanus is a serious and often fatal disease caused by the infection of an open wound with the anaerobic bacterium species: Clostridium tetani, found in soil and the intestines and faeces of animals.

As a verb twitch

is to perform a twitch; spasm.

twitch

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) twicchen, from (etyl) twiccian, from (etyl) ).

Noun

(es)
  • A brief, small (sometimes involuntary) movement out of place and then back again; a spasm.
    • I saw a little twitch in the man's face, and knew he was lying.
  • (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.
    • Derived terms
    * nervous twitch

    Verb

  • To perform a twitch; spasm.
  • * (rfdate) — [http://www.mindspring.com/~randyhoward/new_page_6.htm]
    • "Why is it that you twitch whenever I say Faith?"
  • * 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.
    • to twitch somebody's sleeve for attention
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Thrice they twitched the diamond in her ear.
  • To spot or seek out a bird, especially a rare one.
  • * 1995 , Quarterly Review of Biology vol. 70 p. 348:
    • "The Birdwatchers Handbook ... will be a clear asset to those who 'twitch' in Europe."
  • * 2003 , Mark Cocker, Birders: Tales of a Tribe [http://books.google.com/books?id=tv-Noj1Fvc0C], ISBN 0802139965, page 52:
    • "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."
  • * 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:
    • "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
    * atwitch

    Etymology 2

    alternate of quitch

    Noun

    (-)
  • couch grass, Elymus repens ; a species of grass, often considered as a weed.

    • tetanus

    English

    (wikipedia tetanus)

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (pathology, countable) A serious and often fatal disease caused by the infection of an open wound with the anaerobic bacterium , found in soil and the intestines and faeces of animals.
  • (physiology, countable) A state of muscle tension caused by sustained contraction arising from a rapid series of nerve impulses which do not allow the muscle to relax.
  • * {{quote-journal, 1998, date=January 16, Pierre-Marie Lledo et al., Postsynaptic Membrane Fusion and Long-Term Potentiation, Science citation
    • , passage=We first saturated LTP in one pathway by applying repetitive tetani that had no effect on the control pathway (Fig. 4 B). }}

    Synonyms

    * (disease caused by Clostridium tetani) lockjaw

    Derived terms

    * tetanal * tetanic * tetany

    Anagrams

    * * ----