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It appeared in the following conversation.

A: It's about time you went home, don't you think?

B: You plan on saying "I'll take you" again, and coming with me, don't you? Well, I was going to go home even without you telling me. It's late.

A: Ah, I'll take you home.

B: Uwah,not even a twist.

B is a brother of "A"'s girlfriend.
A want to go out,but don't want his girlfriend knows where he exactly go.
So he make that excuse.
And he did it the other day.

I referred to a dictionary. The closest meaning is:

A twist in something is an unexpected and significant development.

But it seems that it doesn't match the context of the sentence well.

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  • But it does match the context quite well, doesn't it? B predicts what A is about to say, which A actually says, so B remarks that there wasn't even a twist in the usual plot.
    – user3395
    May 23, 2017 at 14:45

3 Answers 3

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In the conversation, A expresses the expectation that B is predictable and that the next thing B will say is "I will take you". That's exactly what B says next. The "not even a twist" looks like A's remark on the exact conformance of B's actual plan to the predicted one, not showing any effort to introduce variation.

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  • Yes,it's exactly what happened. I guess the meaning of "twist" is like "change" or "alteration". But it's decorated with "even". Shouldn't the word used here be weaker in degree? Because my dictionary gives the meaning is “significant development". For example: I let my brother guess a kind of fishs.But he says wolf.Then I say: it's not even a fish.My English is poor. I don't know if I express my point.
    – Humble Novice
    May 23, 2017 at 19:21
  • "even" is used with negatives, to emphasize that not only is the best expectation not being satisfied, but neither is a lower, second best expectation. A's best expectation here is that B has a completely original plan, not based on the goal of taking A home. The second best expectation is that B has the same old plan of taking A home, but with some twist (stop for drinks somewhere, go for a scenic drive, whatever). B did not even meet the lower expectation of coming up with the same old plan, but with a twist. That's a pattern in which "even" is used.
    – Kaz
    May 23, 2017 at 23:21
  • Yes, that's right. Not even a new twist on the expected pattern.
    – Andrew
    May 24, 2017 at 5:01
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Your dictionary definition is correct; however "twist" can sometimes refer to strong emotions that make your insides feel as if they are (literally) twisted up.

She felt a momentary twist of guilt for what she'd done to him, but it soon passed

In this case, I actually have no idea what "not even a twist" means in this context. It could be a slang used by that particular dialect of English. Or it could be the first character doesn't even feel a "twist" of emotion at the second character's offer -- which would still be a kind of slang, since it's not a common use of "twist".

So your guess is as good as mine.

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  • Thank you for your reply. I thought "not even a twist" is a idiom that I don't know. And I meet lots of this situations, I can't find them in dictionary. And in my country,most of us don't know English well.Lucky I found this website.And meet kindness people like you guys.
    – Humble Novice
    May 23, 2017 at 19:35
  • No problem! English is spoken by so many people in so many different ways I can't imagine trying to learn all the possible idioms. Much of the time even native speakers have to guess from context. Consider the expression "Don't get your knickers in a twist" (BrE) or "Don't get your panties in a twist" (AmE), which mean very little on their own, but would probably make perfect sense if you heard them in context.
    – Andrew
    May 23, 2017 at 19:41
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If I had to guess, I'd say it's referring to the idiom twist [your] arm. It refers to pressuring someone into doing something they don't necessarily want to do, and, importantly in this case, is often used to imply only token resistance. Example:

Me: Shall we order pizza for dinner tonight?

Wife: Oh, all right then, if you twist my arm...

In this case, my wife and I both want to order pizza, but she pretends to resist for humourous effect.

In this case, it appears that B expects A to try to pressure them into going home. B is saying that they planned to go anyway, so A does not have to twist their arm into leaving.

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  • Thank you for your reply. I've edited my post. Now the conversation should express more clearly. But I'm confused in your sentence.It seems the wife doesn't want to order pizza. So she said only you twist my arms,I'll eat pizza for dinner.
    – Humble Novice
    May 23, 2017 at 19:29

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