Library / English Dictionary

TWANG

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Exaggerated nasality in speech (as in some regional dialects)

Synonyms:

nasal twang; twang

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

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

nasality (a quality of the voice that is produced by nasal resonators)

Derivation:

twang (pronounce with a nasal twang)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A sharp vibrating sound (as of a plucked string)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

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

sound (the sudden occurrence of an audible event)

Derivation:

twang (pluck (strings of an instrument))

twang (sound with a twang)

twang (cause to sound with a twang)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Pronounce with a nasal twang

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

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

articulate; enounce; enunciate; pronounce; say; sound out (speak, pronounce, or utter in a certain way)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

twang (exaggerated nasality in speech (as in some regional dialects))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Pluck (strings of an instrument)

Example:

He twanged his bow

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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

pick; pluck; plunk (pull lightly but sharply with a plucking motion)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

twang (a sharp vibrating sound (as of a plucked string))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Twitch or throb with pain

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

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

throb (pulsate or pound with abnormal force)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 4

Meaning:

Sound with a twang

Example:

the bowstring was twanging

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

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

go; sound (make a certain noise or sound)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

twang (a sharp vibrating sound (as of a plucked string))

Sense 5

Meaning:

Cause to sound with a twang

Example:

He twanged the guitar string

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

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

sound (cause to sound)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

twang (a sharp vibrating sound (as of a plucked string))

Credits

 Context examples: 

So ran the muttered chorus, while high above it rose the sharp twanging of the strings, the hiss of the shafts, and the short Draw your arrow!

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Yet, ere the last string had twanged, he would be down on his four bones among the stricken, and have them all houseled and shriven, as quick as shelling peas.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

By the twang of string!

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Stop him, or we are undone! cried Du Guesclin, and had started to run, when Aylward's great war-bow twanged like a harp-string, and the man fell forward upon his face, with twitching limbs and clutching fingers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

By All Saints' day, however ere the last leaves had fluttered to earth in the Wilverley and Holmesley glades, he had filled up his full numbers, and mustered under his banner as stout a following of Hampshire foresters as ever twanged their war-bows.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

'Tis true that a French wench took it all off Peter as quick as the Frenchman paid it; but what then? By the twang of string! it would be a bad thing if money was not made to be spent; and how better than on woman—eh, ma belle?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If I had my wish, it would be to fall so—not, mark you, in any mere skirmish of the Company, but in a stricken field, with the great lion banner waving over us and the red oriflamme in front, amid the shouting of my fellows and the twanging of the strings.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Heavy and slow is he by nature, and is not to be brought into battle for the sake of a lady's eyelash or the twang of a minstrel's string, like the hotter blood of the south. But ma foi! lay hand on his wool-bales, or trifle with his velvet of Bruges, and out buzzes every stout burgher, like bees from the tee-hole, ready to lay on as though it were his one business in life.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It chanced that out of one of the bundles there stuck the end of what the clerk saw to be a cittern, so drawing it forth, he tuned it up and twanged a harmony to the merry lilt which the dancers played.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)