from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- intransitive v. To emit a sharp, vibrating sound, as the string of a musical instrument does when it is plucked.
- intransitive v. To resound with a sharp, vibrating sound.
- intransitive v. To speak in a strongly nasal tone of voice.
- transitive v. To cause to make a sharp, vibrating sound: twanged the car antenna.
- transitive v. To utter with a strongly nasal tone of voice.
- n. A sharp, vibrating sound, as that of a plucked string.
- n. A strongly nasal tone of voice, especially as a peculiarity of certain regional dialects.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. An onomatopoeia for the sound of a vibrating string - e.g. of a bow, or a musical instrument.
- n. A technical term for a particular sharp vibrating sound characteristic of electrical guitars.
- n. A trace of regional or foreign accent in someone's voice.
- n. A sound quality that appears in the human voice when the epilaryngeal tube is narrowed.
- v. To produce a sharp vibrating sound.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A tang. See tang a state.
- n. A harsh, quick sound, like that made by a stretched string when pulled and suddenly let go.
- n. An affected modulation of the voice; a kind of nasal sound.
- intransitive v. To sound with a quick, harsh noise; to make the sound of a tense string pulled and suddenly let go.
- transitive v. To make to sound, as by pulling a tense string and letting it go suddenly.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To give out a sharp, metallic ring, as the string of a musical instrument, a bow, etc., when plucked and suddenly set free: said also of other instruments which make a similar sound.
- To make music on a stringed instrument that is played by plucking or snapping; cause a sharp ringing sound like that of a harp or bowstring: as, to twang on a jews'-harp.
- To have a nasal sound: said of the human voice; also, to speak with a nasal twang: said of persons.
- To shoot with a bow; make a shot; hence, figuratively, to surmise; guess.
- To cause to sound with a short sharp ring; set in quick, resounding vibration, as the tense string of a bow or a musical instrument that is played by plucking: said less frequently of wind-instruments.
- To sound forth by means of a twanging instrument.
- To utter with a short, sharp, or nasal sound; specifically, to pronounce with a nasal twang.
- An exclamation or sound imitative of the twang of a bowstring, harpstring, etc.
- n. The sound of a tense string set in sudden sharp vibration by plucking; hence, any sharp, ringing musical sound.
- n. A sharp, ringing nasal tone, especially of the human voice.
- n. A sharp taste; a disagreeable after-taste or flavor left in the mouth; a tang; a flavor.
- n. A sharp pull; a sudden pang, a twinge.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- v. sound with a twang
- v. pluck (strings of an instrument)
- v. pronounce with a nasal twang
- v. twitch or throb with pain
- n. a sharp vibrating sound (as of a plucked string)
- n. exaggerated nasality in speech (as in some regional dialects)
- v. cause to sound with a twang
'Anna claims she has had no plastic surgery; we have the evidence that everything about her but her trademark Texas country twang is manufactured - breasts, lips, weight loss.'
She could distinguish, she said, a Northern twang from a Southern drawl, and she knew a great deal from vibrations, and also from her sense of smell, she could tell when a storm was coming.
It’ll be interesting to see how many affectations (e.g. loves of guns and NASCAR and a mountain twang) he’ll put on over the next year ….
It is true that, on starting, we were still in Virginia, of which Wheeling is one of the largest towns; but the bulk of our fellow-passengers were evidently from the West; they are chiefly descendants of the New Englanders, and partake of their character, with the exception of the nasal twang, which is worse in New
Best described as the twang that rang throughout the world and originally performed by The Shadows in the sixties after Bert Lordan bashed it out on a ukulele, Apache has been defiled by jazz musicians as well as Moog-munting Danes.
I've always used cream cheese as a binder for the filling as it produces a little "twang" at first bite.
I love Aquaman's snippy "But he still has that unbearable establishment 'twang' in his voice!" thought balloon on the last page.
But I forgive Ms. Gregory this anachronism if only because she has rescued that lovely word "twang" — during a soccer match, a crossbar is hit "with such force that it twanged like a tuning fork" — from its doubtless impending oblivion.
I also like how you used the word "twang" today in the bio.
Not too bad, because as soon as I felt that tell-tale "twang" I let myself fold up on the floor like a baby throwing a temper tantrum; but it was still a pull.
Wordnik is becoming a not-for-profit! Read our announcement here.