tweague

English

Alternative forms

• tweag

Etymology

Derived from tweak.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /twiːɡ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -iːɡ

Noun

tweague

1. (obsolete, UK dialectal) Doubt, perplexity; a troubled or distressed condition.
   • 1710, Ned Ward, The Whole Pleasures of Matrimony, London: Tho. Norris, page 18:

     This puts the young Gentlewoman into ſuch a Tweague, that ſhe can do nothing all Day, nor ſleep at Night, for dreaming of the conjuring Man: And in the Morning, leaves for Devotion, to conſult Taurus and Gemini: and finds her Sweet-heart ſo accurately deſcribed, as if he had conſulted with the Devil, or her Maid, inſtead of the Twins.

   • 1712, John Arbuthnot, John Bull Still in His Senses, London: John Morphew, page 25:

     I fancy this put the Old Fellow in a rare Tweag.

   • 1715, Charles Molloy, The Perplex'd Couple: Or, Mistake Upon Mistake., London: W. Meares; J. Brown, page 61:

     You're in a devilish Tweague, for fear of losing your Gallant, are ye?

   • 1844, John Heneage Jesse, George Selwyn and His Contemporaries, volume 4, London: Richard Bentley, page 12:

     I wish, sir, you had now and then something to do with my under-strappers, to see what a tweague and a taking you would be in, when you wanted to come at a fact, at the roundabout way the b——'s will take to give it to you,—just as I am doing now, you will say.

2. Obsolete form of tweak.

Usage notes

• Someone may be said to be "in a tweague".

Verb

tweague

1. Obsolete form of tweak.

References

• “tweak, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.