▪ I. twining, vbl. n.
(ˈtwaɪnɪŋ)
[f. twine v.1 + -ing1.]
The action of the verb twine; twisting, spinning, winding, embracing, writhing.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. cxlii[i]. (Bodl. MS.) lf. 227 b/1 Smal [weþies]..beþ made stronge wiþ..windinge as þrede is w{supt} twynynge. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 505/1 Twynynge (or wyn(d)ynge, of threde..), tortura. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. (1580) 101 A priuie twinyng, or close crepyng in, to win fauour.., called insinuation. a 1639 Webster Appius & Virginia iv. ii, The rude twinings of a lecherous judge. a 1703 Pomfret Poet. Wks. (1833) 21 Love to one centre every twining brought. 1841 Emerson Lect., Man the Reformer Wks. (Bohn) II. 238 Inextricable seem to be the twinings and tendrils of this evil. 1872 G. B. Cheever Lect. Pilgr. Progr. ii. 44 The twinings and wrestlings, the strivings and agonies of Bunyan's spirit. 1875 Bennett & Dyer Sachs's Bot. 772 The Twining of Climbing Plants... Twining is a consequence of unequal growth, of a revolving nutation. |
| attrib. 1648 Hexham ii, Een Twern ofte twijn-molen, a Twinning-mill. |
▪ II. twining, ppl. a.
(ˈtwaɪnɪŋ)
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That twines, in various senses; twisting, winding, coiling, writhing, etc.; spec. of a plant: growing spirally round a support.
| a 1593 Marlowe in Eng. Parnassus (1600) 480 The Eglantine and Rose..As kind companions in one union grows, Folding their twining armes. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 8 The twining tendrils of the Vine. 1669 Penn No Cross vii. §4 A Crooked, Twining, Twisting Serpent. 1735 Somerville Chase iv. 153 Spare not thou The twining whip, but ply his bleeding Sides. 1824 L. M. Hawkins Annaline II. 213 The thick forest [was] decorated with twining plants. 1861 Bentley Man. Bot. (1870) 100 If such stems twist round other bodies in a spiral manner they are said to be twining. |
Hence ˈtwiningly adv., in a twining manner.
| 1731 Bailey, Twiningly, twistingly. |