twisty, a. (n.)
(ˈtwɪstɪ)
[f. twist n.1 or v. + -y.]
A. adj.
1. Full of twists or turns; characterized by twisting or winding; also fig. dishonest, not straightforward. (Cf. twistical.)
| 1857 W. Arnot Let. in Life vi. (1877) 330 It [a valley] was narrow and hilly and woody and beautiful and twisty. 1869 E. W. Benson in Life (1900) I. ix. 309 Neither olive nor vine, only the poor twisty bramble. 1894 Blackmore Perlycross xxxviii, I just chucked 'un into a pool of watter, for to kape 'un out o' sight of twisty volk. 1905 Daily Chron. 21 July 4/7 A somewhat twisty redistribution of seats. 1912 D. Crawford Thinking Black i. 7 This Africa for thousands of twisty miles ahead is..wholly innocent of roads. |
2. = twisted ppl. a. 2 c.
| 1929 L. P. Hartley in Mercury Story Bk. 206 The glasses with twisty stems were there. |
B. n. The fruit of the screw-tree,
Helicteres Isora, of Southern India; see
quot.| 1866 Treas. Bot. 576/1 H[elicteres] Isora is a native of Southern India, where its singular twisted screw-like fruit, about two inches in length, is called ‘twisted stick’, ‘twisted horn’, or ‘twisty’, and..is supposed to be a sovereign remedy against colic or twistings of the bowels. |
Hence
ˈtwistiness, the condition or quality of being twisty;
ˈtwistiways,
ˈtwistiwise advs., in a twisty manner. So
ˈtwisty-ˈwisty a. nonce-wd.| 1904 Daily News 16 July 4/2 As Miss Morison went upstream her progress was very tardy, a fact partly owing to the curious *twistiness of the river. |
| 1903 Speaker 9 May 135/1 To drift *twistiways on the variant currents of men's thoughts. |
| 1907 Westm. Gaz. 13 Sept. 2/1 Pace it [a ‘magic’ ring] three times round, ‘*twisty-wise’, with face against the sun. |
| 1892 Kipling Barrack-room Ballads 33 A single man gets bottled on them *twisty-wisty stairs. |