hanky-twist

verb

To fret; to worry ineffectually.

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Meanings

verbhanky-twist (third-person singular simple present hanky-twists, present participle hanky-twisting, simple past and past participle hanky-twisted)

present singular third person hanky-twists · participle present hanky-twisting · participle past hanky-twisted · past hanky-twisted

  1. To fret; to worry ineffectually.

    After years of hanky-twisting, here we are, irreversibly committed to this thing.

    2011, Jack Walker, The Extraordinary Rendition of Vincent Dellamaria: A Political Fiction, →ISBN
    2 more examples

    There must in other fields be analogous forms of the brow-knitting and hanky-twisting which have accompanied the more narcissistic aspects of the 'literary turn' in anthropology (of which Writing Culture is least typical) and cognate fields.

    1993, Stephen L. Nugent, Amazonian Caboclo Society: An Essay on Invisibility and Peasant Economy

    Cinema's standout bad guys didn't hanky-twist their lives away whimpering “Gee, am I doing something wrong?”

    2016, Lionel Shriver, Paradise to Perdition

Origin

From the image of an anxious person twisting a handkerchief in the hands.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

hanky-twist. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hanky-twist

MLA

“hanky-twist.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hanky-twist. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hanky-twist,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hanky-twist.

Source: hanky-twist on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.