What it means
Means you suddenly realise something that should’ve been obvious, like the penny finally dropping after everyone else clocked it ages ago. You’ll hear it as twig, twigged, or twigging on, often with to or on thrown in, like I twigged to it. Useful in a chat when you’ve been a bit slow on the uptake.
Usage examples
"I’ve only just twigged why everyone’s been whispering then shutting up when I come in. It’s my leaving do tonight, isn’t it? Sneaky lot."
"It took me half the meeting to twig that they were talking about a different project entirely."
"She finally twigged that the surprise party was for her, halfway through her own birthday lunch."
"I didn't twig till the taxi pulled up outside the airport that you lot were actually sending me off properly."
"He kept dropping hints all night and I still didn't twig on. Absolute state of my brain."
Where it comes from
Widely accepted as coming from Irish tuigim, meaning I understand. It filtered into English through Irish speech and writing in the 18th century, then settled into British slang as twig for suddenly getting it. It later overlapped by sound with the older English twig, the little branch word.
Other ways to say it
Editors of this term
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