Blend of twitch + jerk. The "sexually-provocative dance" sense was particularly popularized since c. 2000 by hip-hop from the United States of America, and again in 2013 by singer Miley Cyrus.
Meanings
Synonym of twerking (“a sexually-provocative dance, involving the performer thrusting their hips back from a low squatting stance while shaking their buttocks”).
It was the twerk that bounced around the world in less than a day. Sound bites from reporters said, “Miley Cyrus’s JAW-DROPPING TWERK-a-thon,” the “twerk-tacular,” “twerk-and-tongue work,” in the “twerk seen ’round the world!” 2016, Jacqueline Warwick, Allison Adrian, editors, Voicing Girlhood in Popular Music, Routledge, →ISBN:
(dated, qualifier:original sense) A fitful movement similar to a twitch or jerk.
"I hardly realize it yet that you are my really truly coz," and she gave the girl's long, brown braids a familiar twerk. 1920, Lilian C. McNamara Garis, The Girl Scouts at Sea Crest: Or, The Wig Wag Rescue, page 86:
With a quick twerk at her shift, the girl lifted it to her rounded belly, and squatted nakedly on his lap. 1950, Robert S. Close, Love Me Sailor, page 86:
"Not so the Freycineti, who looked me over critically, elevated his head crest, and giving his tail an odd little twerk, proceeded to hop deliberately up the limb like a sap-sucker..." 1898, William Brigham, “Director's Report”, in Occasional Papers of the Bernice Pauahi Museum, volume 1, number 1, page 42:
Blend of twitch + jerk. The "sexually-provocative dance" sense was particularly popularized since c. 2000 by hip-hop from the United States of America, and again in 2013 by singer Miley Cyrus.
Meanings
To dance in a sexually-provocative way using hip thrusts in a low squatting stance while shaking the buttocks; to take part in twerking.
Let me see what ya twerkin with / Look at those hips 2006, “SexyBack”, in FutureSex/LoveSounds, performed by Justin Timberlake ft. Timbaland:
Gaea then stood up over me and turned so that her butt was facing me. She then had the nerve to start twerking. 2005, Euftis Emery, Off the Chain, →ISBN, page 73:
"Shortie really knows how to twerk it don't she?" Marcus boasted, while still recording. 2006, Lawrence Christopher, Ghettoway Weekend, →ISBN, page 96:
Twerking, as it is known in the hip-hop community, is a hard-hitting, rump-shaking dance move that celebrities including Beyonce and Miley Cyrus have been known to bust out, but it has also gotten a group of San Diego high school students suspended. […] Mostly female students in tops and leggings were shown twerking in the school yard, twerking with each other and even twerking upside down. 2013 May 3, Nichole Smith, “High School Students Suspended for Twerking”, in ABC News, archived from the original on 03 Jun 2026:
(dated, qualifier:original sense) To twitch or jerk.
He twerked an eyebrow at his wife. 2005, Florence Hall Abssi, The Call, page 613:
[…] in the language of the unsophisticated Port Melbourne suburbanite a bed was still something primarily intended for love-making – all the eyebrow-raising and moustache-twerking in Jo'burg couldn't alter that. 1985, Criena Rohan, Down by the Docks, page 151:
tr twerklemek (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · es sandunguear (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · tl kaldag (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · fa کاچول (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · mi tīonioni (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · it twerkare (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · fa کچول (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · cmn 電臀 /电臀 (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · hu riszál (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · tr twerk yapmak (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · de twerken (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · es twerkear (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · mi onioni (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · ru твёркнуть (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · de lasziv bewegen (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · yue 跳電臀舞 /跳电臀舞 (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · ru тве́ркнуть (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · hu twerkel (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · he עִנְטֵז (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · ru твёркать (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · sv twerka (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · fi twerkata (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · pt rebolar (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · es perrear (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · ru тве́ркать (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · cmn 跳電臀舞 /跳电臀舞 (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · pl twerkować (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance)) · yue 電臀 /电臀 (to take part in twerking (the sexually-provocative dance))
Blend of twerp + jerk, found primarily in the 1930s-era works of Walter Dumaux Edmonds.
Meanings
(US, dated, slang) A puny or insignificant person, generally male; a twerp.
You don't need those twerks who walk in off the street. 2003, Bernard Kamoroff, Small Time Operator, →ISBN, page 19:
"'...but when they load a pack onto you, what'll you do? A little twerk like you?'" 1930, Walter Dumaux Edmonds, The Big Barn, page 207:
"But even then the poor twerk's whiskers and little eyes looked kind of wistful as if the clothes had got him and was taking him somewhere..." 1932, Forum and Century, volume 87: