TWITTER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does twitter mean? 

• TWITTER (noun)
  The noun TWITTER has 1 sense:

1. a series of chirps

  Familiarity information: TWITTER used as a noun is very rare.

• TWITTER (verb)
  The verb TWITTER has 1 sense:

1. make high-pitched sounds, as of birds

  Familiarity information: TWITTER used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TWITTER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A series of chirps

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

chirrup; twitter

Hypernyms ("twitter" is a kind of...):

sound (the sudden occurrence of an audible event)

Derivation:

twitter (make high-pitched sounds, as of birds)

• TWITTER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they twitter    ... he / she / it twitters   
Past simple: twittered   
Past participle: twittered   
-ing form: twittering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make high-pitched sounds, as of birds

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

chitter; twitter

Hypernyms (to "twitter" is one way to...):

cheep; chirp; chirrup; peep (make high-pitched sounds)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

twitter (a series of chirps)

twitterer (a bird that twitters)

 Context examples 

Strangest of all was when a brisk tune struck suddenly up and the four legs began to kick and twitter in time to the music.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Internet Social Media (e.g. facebook, twitter, myspace)

(Internet Social Media, Food and Drug Administration)

He was in a pitiable state of reaction, with every nerve in a twitter.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Birds twittered their adieux from the alders in the lane, and every tree stood ready to send down its shower of red or yellow apples at the first shake.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

This seemed to puzzle him, so I followed it up:—A nice time you'll have some time when you're flying out there, with the souls of thousands of flies and spiders and birds and cats buzzing and twittering and miauing all round you.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It was an everlasting miracle to Martin how it was accomplished, and from her side of the thin partition he heard nightly every detail of the going to bed, the squalls and squabbles, the soft chattering, and the sleepy, twittering noises as of birds.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The stillness of early morning slumbered everywhere; the curtains were yet drawn over the servants' chamber windows; little birds were just twittering in the blossom-blanched orchard trees, whose boughs drooped like white garlands over the wall enclosing one side of the yard; the carriage horses stamped from time to time in their closed stables: all else was still.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Alleyne, weary with the unwonted excitements of the day, was soon in a deep slumber broken only by fleeting visions of twittering legs, cursing beggars, black robbers, and the many strange folk whom he had met at the Pied Merlin.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)