Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A weak chirping sound, as of a young or small bird.
- noun A message posted on Twitter. Tweets are limited to 140 characters.
- intransitive verb To utter a weak chirping sound.
- intransitive verb To write a tweet on Twitter.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The
sound of abird ; any short high-pitched sound orwhistle . - noun Internet An entry posted on the
microblogging service Twitter; can be a post or status update. - verb intransitive To make a short high-pitched sound, like that of certain birds.
- verb transitive, intransitive, Internet To post an update to Twitter.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb squeeze tightly between the fingers
- noun a weak chirping sound as of a small bird
- verb make a weak, chirping sound
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Mr. Lincoln, imitating the bird, said: '_Tweet, tweet, tweet_; isn't he singing sweetly?'
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As I caught sight of him, he was straightening himself up, with a pretty, self-conscious air, at the same time spreading his white-edged tail, and calling, _Tweet, tweet, tweet_. [
Birds in the Bush Bradford Torrey 1877
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The term "tweet," though no one quite knows, was initially used by Twitter users and was never trademarked, unlike Twitter.
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If the resonance of the promoted tweet falls below the resonance of an average tweet from the same account, the promoted tweet is pulled.
Eric Shutt: Twitter Offers Peek at Plans to Monetize Advertising Eric Shutt 2010
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Even one successful hacked tweet from the account of a trusted user can have serious repercussions, especially if the bogus tweet is “retweeted” by followers to still more people.
Russian Cybercriminals Selling Thousands of Hacked Twitter Accounts | Impact Lab 2010
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Crikey says that her last tweet translates as: "CIA agent, rabid feminist / Muslim lover, a Christian fundamentalist, frigid & fatally in love with a man, can you be all that at the same time ..."
Anna Ardin, Julian Assange Rape Accuser, May Have Ceased Pursuing Claims Cara Parks 2010
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Crikey says that her last tweet translates as: "CIA agent, rabid feminist / Muslim lover, a Christian fundamentalist, frigid & fatally in love with a man, can you be all that at the same time ..."
Anna Ardin, Julian Assange Rape Accuser, May Have Ceased Pursuing Claims The Huffington Post News Team 2010
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I would respectfully disagree that a tweet is the “smallest possible unit of online interaction”.
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In some editions Saturday, a front-page article about the trademark ownership of the word "tweet" incorrectly identified the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as the Patent and Trade Office in one reference.
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The word "tweet" is to become a registered trademark of the online messaging service Twitter, it has emerged.
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph James Orr 2011
mager commented on the word tweet
twitter anyone?
March 23, 2007
ecrivaine33 commented on the word tweet
I'm Ecrivaine33 on Twitter
September 10, 2007
john commented on the word tweet
I'm... uh... Wordie :-)
And also johnny99, though lately I don't update that as much.
September 10, 2007
Prolagus commented on the word tweet
Prolagus, ça va sans dire...
March 26, 2009
sionnach commented on the word tweet
Dear Sweet Lord:
It is my most devout and fervent wish that this vile Twitter phenomenon should fade into deserved obscurity, yielding to the next shiny, bright, glittering microfad that can distract the cybermasses for the duration of their nanosecond-long attention span.
I have offered many a novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Dolor that this may come to pass, thus far with conspicuous lack of success.
If I promise to drag myself on both knees up the aisle of the cathedral in Seville when I visit next week, will you look upon my poor sinner's wish with favor?
Zorrito Pecador
March 26, 2009
Prolagus commented on the word tweet
Next step is blipper.
March 26, 2009
chained_bear commented on the word tweet
Sadly, Twitter is now a litmus test for old farts.
*is sad to be an old fart, even though she occasionally, feebly, tweets*
*eyes sionnach suspiciously, expecting another rant, or at least a novena*
March 26, 2009
sionnach commented on the word tweet
Ursula, darlin', no need to worry. I, too, have a twitter account. Though I don't think I have ever actually posted to it. Occasionally, very puzzlingly, I have received e-mail notification that certain individuals are "following" me on Twitter. Which must have all the sizzle of watching the Golden Gate rust.
But I am clearly rapidly approaching old fartitude. I plan to do so as curmudgeonlyly as possible.
Which brings up two questions that have been puzzling me:
Why is curmudgeonly an adjective, and what is its preferred adverbial form? I suppose the same could go for kindly, sickly, gho/a/stly and so forth, and I bet someone has a list? Waits hopefully.
Is there an adjective that corresponds to asperity? If so, what is it, and if not, why not? What other abstract nouns are like this - possible candidates that come to mind are alacrity, temerity (but, "temerarious") celerity.
Well, the dictionary says asperous, a word I have never seen written in my entire life up until now, though it has the meaning you might reasonably expect.
March 26, 2009
bilby commented on the word tweet
Blang and dast it, looks as if I am going to have to set up a Twatter account at work and blurt out 'status updates on collaborating artists' during the Fringe Festival this year. Someone in the organisation probably thinks it's a good idea, which it might indeed be until my whimsy gets the better of me:
* Did you see that brush-stroke? Champagne painting!
* The poet in the corner is looking exquisitely anguished now. Sonnet or suicide by lunch-time.
* A jam session has just started with the Bhutan Bongo quartet and it's raspberry!
March 26, 2009
hrmlss commented on the word tweet
noun, a message sent via Twitter (q.v.): "this is my first tweet", "this will be my last tweet about soccer until the next World Cup"
verb intransitive, to send a message via Twitter (q.v.): "when you tweet, try to say something interesting"; also transitive: "she tweets punchlines only, you need to figure out the rest of the joke"
replace (q.v.) with link to definition of /words/twitter, specifically definition of Internet service operating at twitter.com
June 29, 2009
alexz commented on the word tweet
added to my Word of the Year shortlist for 2017 - most news events have included some tweet of some kind this year.,
July 13, 2017