twinge
/twɪn(d)ʒ
/noun
1A sudden, sharp localized pain: he felt a twinge in his knee...
- Halfway through the day I turned my head and felt a sudden twinge of pain.
- The sharp twinge of pain combined with suddenly rising to his feet must have induced a vasovagal attack.
- His battered stomach muscles - constricted from lack of use - sent a sharp twinge of pain skittering across his abdomen.
Synonyms
pain, sharp pain, shooting pain, stab of pain, spasm, ache, throb;
cramp, stitch
archaic throe
1.1A brief experience of an emotion, typically an unpleasant one: Kate felt a twinge of guilt...
- Naturally, I'll experience a twinge of envy as employed friends brag about their party excesses.
- If you are now experiencing a twinge of embarrassment, it is probably because of a costly error of judgement in relating to somebody from the opposite sex.
- Still not experiencing a twinge of fear, she eyed the man up and down.
Synonyms
pang, prick, dart;
qualm, scruple, misgiving
verb (twinges, twingeing or twinging, twinged) [no object]
(Of a part of the body) suffer a sudden, sharp localized pain: stop the exercises if the tummy twinges...
- He picked his bruised body gingerly off the floor, cursing as his abused hands twinged with pain.
- Her back twinged with pain, she didn't want to do anything right now.
- As soon as his right leg hit the ground, his knee twinged with pain.
Origin
Old English twengan 'pinch, wring', of Germanic origin. The noun dates from the mid 16th century.
thong from Old English:
Thong is related to twinge (Old English), which originally meant to pinch. In Anglo-Saxon times a thong was a shoelace. It then came to be used for any narrow strip of leather, and finally to any thin strip of material, from which came the modern use for minuscule underwear in the 1970s.