twinge

noun \ ˈtwinj \

|Updated on: 5 Jul 2018

Examples: twinge in a Sentence

Definition of twinge

1 : a sudden sharp stab of pain

2 : a moral or emotional pang

a twinge of conscience

a twinge of sympathy

See twinge defined for English-language learners

Examples of twinge in a Sentence

He felt a twinge of arthritis when he stood up.
I still feel an occasional twinge in my leg from the accident.
I felt a twinge of guilt.
I must admit to a twinge of envy.

Recent Examples of twinge from the Web

Tell me this doesn't give you a twinge of nostalgia.

— morgan baila, refinery29.com, "Brace Yourselves For Timothée Chalamet & Steve Carrell In First Beautiful Boy Trailer," 27 June 2018
Anyone might feel a twinge of guilt at not regularly visiting all the great venues for visual art in the Bay Area.

— charles desmarais, San Francisco Chronicle, "Three SF galleries under the radar but worth seeking out," 16 May 2018
Even so, as Brehme struck the ball into the bottom left corner of Sergio Goycochea’s net, there must have been a twinge of regret for Matthäus.

— SI.com, "World Cup Countdown: 7 Weeks to Go - The Flawed Genius of the Great Lothar Matthäus," 2 May 2018
Feeling a twinge from that wound seems like the most logical explanation of them all — except William was shot long after the night Juliette died, which wouldn’t explain the gesture way back then unless some timeline trickery was being used.

— bryan bishop, The Verge, "Westworld Spoilers Club season 2, episode 9: Vanishing Point," 18 June 2018
Barry felt a twinge of passion at the sight of a Bloomberg up and running.

— gary shteyngart, The New Yorker, "The Luck of Kokura," 18 June 2018
The insertion process, which can range from feeling like a slight twinge to being surprisingly painful, involves your doctor pushing the folded up IUD past your cervix and into your uterus via a slim applicator tube, according to the Mayo Clinic.

— zahra barnes, SELF, "Can My IUD Fall Out if I Have Rough Sex?," 14 June 2018
Manager Jeff Banister said that Martin felt a twinge in a hamstring while pouring onto the field and was unavailable to pitch in the 3-2 loss in 11 innings.

— jeff wilson, star-telegram, "Collision didn't leave Chirinos miffed at Kemp. So, what did?," 13 June 2018
But there is also a little something else: a twinge of jealousy.

— mithila phadke, Longreads, "A True (Non-Hierarchical, Shared) Love," 14 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'twinge.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of twinge

1608

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

NEW! Time Traveler

twinge Synonyms

Synonyms

ache, pain, pang, prick, shoot, smart, sting, stitch, throe, tingle;

Near Antonyms

comfort, ease, easiness;

affliction, agony, anguish, misery, sufferance, suffering, torment, torture;

inflammation, sore, swelling;

damage, detriment, harm, hurt, injury;

backache, bellyache, charley horse, colic, complaint, earache, gripe, headache, stomachache, toothache;

twinge

verb

Definition of twinge

twinged; twinging play \ˈtwin-jiŋ\ or twingeing

transitive verb

1 dialect : pluck, tweak

2 : to affect with a sharp pain or pang

intransitive verb

: to feel a sudden sharp local pain

See twinge defined for kids

Recent Examples of twinge from the Web

Over time, all that stress catches up to you, leaving the front of your shoulder joints twinging with every rep.

— lauren bedosky, SELF, "Why Your Wrists and Shoulders Hurt During Push-Ups and Planks—and How to Fix It," 3 Sep. 2017
A few minutes later, when his crossover and soaring dunk put the Warriors up 22-3, worries that Durant’s twinged calf muscle would slow him were out the window.

— anthony slater, The Mercury News, "Warriors smack Blazers in Game 4 rout, complete dominant first round sweep," 24 Apr. 2017
Bar Botellón, named for the endlessly popular Spanish tradition of public drinking, embraces this style, offering fusion-y bites of Spanish tortilla twinged with lemon rind or crostini topped with a pimento spread.

— michael russell | the oregonian/oregonlive, OregonLive.com, "Portland's 10 best* Spanish restaurants," 7 June 2017
The result is an often heartfelt, always clean set with a focus on families and small-town life, all twinged with a healthy dose of non-sequitur madness (his Instagram account, for example, consists mostly of photos of tomatoes).

— nick vadala, Philly.com, "Comedian Joe Pera brings his grandfatherly stylings to Philadelphia this weekend," 16 June 2017