▪ I. tweet, n. and int.
(twiːt)
[Echoic.]
An imitation of the note of a small bird. Also repeated.
Cf. tueit in the Compl. Scot. (1549) vi. 39.
| 1845 Zoologist III. 1063 Its usual note is monosyllabic, and like tweet, tweet, tweet. 1851 G. Meredith S.-W.-Wind in Woodland 8 A chirp or tweet, That utters fear or anxious love. 1897 A. H. Rea in Bards Angus & Mearns 378, I heard the skylark singing gay, The tweet o' tiny wren. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 3 Dec. 10/1 ‘Wheet, tweet, tweet’,..they [quails] called in the meadows. 1910 Blackw. Mag. Feb. 286/1 The ‘tweet tweet’ of the snipe. |
Hence tweet v. trans., to utter in this way, to twitter; also transf.
| 1851 G. Meredith Pastorals v, The little bird..Tweets to its mate a tiny loving note. 1891 S. Mostyn Curatica 63 ‘Oh’, tweet-tweets a diaconal pullet, ‘how splendid!’ 1902 Westm. Gaz. 8 Oct. 8/2 The tweet-tweeting chicks make as much noise in their way as the crowing cockerels. |
▪ II. tweet
dial. var. thwite v., to cut.