variants or less commonly twirp
: a silly, insignificant, or contemptible person

Examples of twerp in a Sentence

Some little twerp took her seat. Her boyfriend's just a pretentious twerp.
Recent Examples on the Web Most of the movie is a vaguely comical swipe at Napoleon in domestic life—an awkward lover, a jealous husband, an inveterate complainer, and in sum an annoying twerp. Kyle Smith, WSJ, 21 Nov. 2023 Kind of a little twerp, now and again. Ashley Fetters Maloy, Washington Post, 7 Nov. 2022 What a little twerp! Tolly Wright, Vulture, 2 June 2021 His Abigail is a perfect twerp, the peevish flipside to Pitt's Most Interesting Man in the World shtick. Leah Greenblatt, EW.com, 18 Mar. 2022 When Briggs leaves Lulu in a (cool, safe) car at night, an animal-rights twerp seeks to break a window with a rock to let in some air, until Briggs advises him why this would be a bad idea. Kyle Smith, National Review, 18 Feb. 2022 That’s the mystery and the magnetism of what the actor’s doing, and without it this Henry would merely be a Lancastrian twerp. BostonGlobe.com, 24 Oct. 2019 To that end, its supporting characters are vivid: One step above Travis in the FAM hierarchy is Cody (Théodore Pellerin), a type-A twerp with a masochistic streak. Judy Berman, Time, 20 Aug. 2019 The fear is that kids who habitually order Amazon's Alexa to read them a story or command Google's Assistant to tell them a joke are learning to communicate not as polite, considerate citizens, but as demanding little twerps. Robbie Gonzalez, WIRED, 11 May 2018

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'twerp.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

origin unknown

First Known Use

circa 1923, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of twerp was circa 1923

Dictionary Entries Near twerp

Cite this Entry

“Twerp.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/twerp. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

twerp

noun
: a silly or unimportant person
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