twist vs wigwag

twist

verb
  • To dance the twist (a type of dance characterised by twisting one's hips). 

  • To turn the ends of something, usually thread, rope etc., in opposite directions, often using force. 

  • To wreathe; to wind; to encircle; to unite by intertexture of parts. 

  • To distort or change the truth or meaning of words when repeating. 

  • In the game of blackjack (pontoon or twenty-one), to be dealt another card. 

  • To turn a knob etc. 

  • To join together by twining one part around another. 

  • To wind into; to insinuate. 

  • To form a twist (in any of the above noun meanings). 

  • To wind; to follow a bendy or wavy course; to have many bends. 

  • To injure (a body part) by bending it in the wrong direction. 

  • To cause to rotate. 

  • To contort; to writhe; to complicate; to crook spirally; to convolve. 

  • To coax. 

noun
  • A sliver of lemon peel added to a cocktail, etc. 

  • A distortion to the meaning of a word or passage. 

  • A sudden bend (or short series of bends) in a road, path, etc. 

  • A twisting force. 

  • The form given in twisting. 

  • An unexpected turn in a story, tale, etc. 

  • A roll or baton of baked dough or pastry in a twisted shape. 

  • The spiral course of the rifling of a gun barrel or a cannon. 

  • A type of dance characterised by rotating one’s hips. See Twist (dance) on Wikipedia for more details. 

  • A strong individual tendency or bent; inclination. 

  • The degree of stress or strain when twisted. 

  • Anything twisted, or the act of twisting. 

  • A small roll of tobacco. 

  • A sprain, especially to the ankle. 

  • A girl, a woman. 

  • A material for gun barrels, consisting of iron and steel twisted and welded together. 

  • A type of thread made from two filaments twisted together. 

  • A rotation of the body when diving. 

wigwag

verb
  • To move gently in one direction and then another; to wig or wiggle, to wag or waggle. 

  • To send a signal by waving a flag to and fro. 

  • An act of wigwagging. 

  • To oscillate between two states. 

adv
  • With a wigwagging or to-and-fro motion. 

noun
  • A device with multiple (often two), alternately flashing lights which is installed at a railway level crossing (or grade crossing), a movable bridge, etc., to warn vehicular traffic to stop. 

  • An instrument that creates a wigwagging motion for polishing. 

  • A grade crossing signal with a swinging motion used to indicate an approaching train. 

  • A device that causes one or more lights to flash in a preset pattern. 

  • A red light near the door of a sound stage that flashes to indicate that cameras are rolling inside the stage and that all people and vehicles outside should remain quiet; a red-eye. 

  • A device used to cause lamps installed on a motor vehicle, especially an emergency vehicle such as an ambulance or police car, to flash as a warning. 

  • Any of a number of mechanical or electrical devices which cause a component to oscillate between two states. 

  • A signal sent by waving a flag to and fro. 

  • A warning device inside the cabin of a truck that causes a mechanical arm to drop into view when the pressure in the airbrake system of the truck becomes too low for the brakes to be reliably deployed. 

How often have the words twist and wigwag occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )