tweeting

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of tweet.

   Fans were tweeting their reactions as the show aired live.

   Tweeting from the back of the room, the reporter shared updates as the verdict came down.

   Note

   One -ing form doing two jobs: after be it is the progressive (she is tweeting), and on its own it can fill a noun slot (tweeting all night annoyed the neighbors). Whether it takes an object depends on the meaning. A bird's tweeting takes none, but posting can (she was tweeting a photo of the stage). In that sense it now stretches to any microblogging site, not only Twitter.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The activity of posting tweets, the short public messages shared on a microblogging service.

   The candidate's late-night tweeting drew criticism from the press.

   Tweeting has become a key part of how brands talk to their customers.

   Similarposting, microblogging

   Note

   An Internet-era noun for a habit rather than a sound. It names the practice of posting, so it sits naturally with possessives and time words (the candidate's late-night tweeting) and works as a subject (tweeting has become routine). Use tweets for the messages themselves; tweeting is the doing. The older bird-sound noun has the same spelling, so context decides which one is meant.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A short, high-pitched sound, like the chirp of a small bird or a similar device.

   A steady tweeting from the nest told us the chicks had hatched.

   The electronic tweeting of the heart monitor reassured the worried family.

   Similarchirping, cheeping, twittering, beeping

   Note

   As a noun for sound, it can be counted, and the plural names repeated bursts. Patricia Monaghan's The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore (2004) complains of a piper's "ceaseless drunken tweetings." There the word has moved well beyond birds to a thin, piping music, and it carries plain irritation. Keep it apart from the posting of messages, which shares the spelling but not the sound.

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