Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
he's been twigging it
English answer:
he's been looking at it (slyly)
Added to glossary by
Charles Davis
Jul 30, 2012 13:50
12 yrs ago
English term
he's been twigging it
English
Other
General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
"There now's the old Mogul," soliloquized Stubb by the try-works, "he's been twigging it; and there goes Starbuck from the same, and both with faces which I should say might be somewhere within nine fathoms long.
Thank you!
Thank you!
Change log
Jul 30, 2012 13:50: changed "Kudoz queue" from "In queue" to "Public"
Aug 4, 2012 07:23: Charles Davis Created KOG entry
Responses
+4
25 mins
Selected
he's been looking at it (slyly)
This is from Moby Dick. Stubb is thinking this to himself. "It" is the gold doubloon which Ahab has nailed to the mainmast and promised as a reward to whoever kills Moby Dick.
This means that the "old Mogul" has been looking at the coin, with a suggestion of looking in a sly or surreptitious way.
If we look at the 1913 revised Webster dictionary, we see that "twig" could mean "understand", as it can colloquially nowadays, but also:
"1. To understand the meaning of; to comprehend; as, do you twig me? [Colloq.] Marryat.
2. To observe slyly; also, to perceive; to discover. Now twig him; now mind him." Foote.
As if he were looking right into your eyes and twigged something there which you had half a mind to conceal. Hawthorne."
http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster's&word=twig&us...
The possible element of observing it slyly may reflect the fact that the crew are rivals for the doubloon, so they don't want to look at it in too obvious a way.
This means that the "old Mogul" has been looking at the coin, with a suggestion of looking in a sly or surreptitious way.
If we look at the 1913 revised Webster dictionary, we see that "twig" could mean "understand", as it can colloquially nowadays, but also:
"1. To understand the meaning of; to comprehend; as, do you twig me? [Colloq.] Marryat.
2. To observe slyly; also, to perceive; to discover. Now twig him; now mind him." Foote.
As if he were looking right into your eyes and twigged something there which you had half a mind to conceal. Hawthorne."
http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster's&word=twig&us...
The possible element of observing it slyly may reflect the fact that the crew are rivals for the doubloon, so they don't want to look at it in too obvious a way.
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
+1
13 mins
He's understood it / come to understand it
Hard without more context, but "I suddenly twigged what he meant" means I have grasped or understood what the other person said. But it might be more specific slang than that.
Peer comment(s):
agree |
Kate Collyer
: in general, but not sure in this context
4 mins
|
Indeed - difficult to tell without more context but I thought I'd put it out there as a suggestion
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