▪ I. twindle, n. Now dial.
(ˈtwɪnd(ə)l)
Also 6 twyndle, -del, 9 twinnel.
[app. for *twinnle, dim. of twin n.: see -le. Cf. OHG. zwinal, -el, zwenel (adj.), twin.]
= twin n. 1.
| 1526 R. Whitford Martiloge 45 A woman..with her two chylder twyndles. 1529 Rastell Pastyme (1811) 12 Romulus and Remus, bredyrne and twyndels. 1642 in Collins Kirkburton Regrs. (1887) I. 237 Thomas and Elizabeth children of Thomas Hepworth beinge twindles. 1674 Lowe Lanc. Diary (1876) 43 Ffriday was buried a twindle of John Leyland{ddd}lordsday was buryed the other twindle of John Leylands. a 1800 Pegge Suppl. Grose, Twindles, twins. Lanc. 1882 Lanc. Gloss., Twindles, twins. |
b. attrib. = twin a. 4 b.
| 1636 W. Sampson Vow-Breaker H ij, I dream'd my husband, when he came first a woing, cam i' the liknes of a Kentish twindle Pippen; that is, just as if two stones grew together. |
Hence twindle (twinnel) v., intr. to bring forth twins: = twin v.2 1.
| 1845 Thornber Penny Stone (1886) 14 Mother Cowburne has twinnelled. |
▪ II. twindle, v.2 intr. nonce-wd.
(ˈtwɪnd(ə)l)
Used by G. M. Hopkins: prob. a blend of twist v. and dwindle v.
| 1881 G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 89 A windpuff-bonnet of fáwn-fróth Turns and twindles over the broth Of a pool so pitchblack, féll-frówning. |