twain

Related to twain: Mark Twain, never the twain shall meet

East is East and West is West (and never the twain shall meet)

proverb Said of two things are too different to ever be agreeable or harmonious. The phrase comes from a Rudyard Kipling poem. If you learn young that East is East and West is West, you won't waste time trying to convert people to your views.
See also: and, east, never, shall, twain, west

never the twain shall meet

These two people, things, or groups are so fundamentally different from one another that they will never be able to coexist or think alike. Primarily heard in US. My best friend is a staunch conservative, while my brother is a hardcore liberal, and never the twain shall meet.
See also: meet, never, shall, twain

rip (someone or something) in twain

To tear someone or something into halves or two pieces of relatively equal size. The strongman impressed the audience by ripping a phonebook in twain with his bare hands. The demonic creature grabbed poor Ishmael and ripped him in twain.
See also: rip, twain

suffuse with (something)

1. To spread something over, across, or throughout something or some place; to fill or saturate something or some place with something. A noun or pronoun is used between "suffuse" and "with." Often used in passive constructions. The candlelight suffused the room with a dull glow that created a gloomy, ponderous atmosphere. The evening sky was suffused with all manner of brilliant colors given off by the setting sun.
2. To fill someone or something thoroughly with some quality or emotion. A noun or pronoun is used between "suffuse" and "with." Often used in passive constructions. The news seems to have certainly suffused him with happiness. The haunting landscapes in the film are suffused with a desolate tragedy that seems to echo the characters' own desperation.
See also: suffuse

tear (someone or something) in twain

old-fashioned To tear someone or something into halves or two pieces of relatively equal size. The strongman impressed the audience by tearing a phonebook in twain with his bare hands. The demonic creature grabbed poor Ishmael and tore him in twain.
See also: tear, twain
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

never the twain shall meet

or

ne'er the twain shall meet

LITERARY
People say never the twain shall meet or ne'er the twain shall meet when they believe that there are so many differences between two groups of people or two groups of things that they can never exist together. The British education system is notorious for separating the sciences and the humanities. This academic `ne'er the twain shall meet' policy does not always reflect the needs of the real world. Note: People often vary this expression. For example, they say that the twain should meet or the twain are not supposed to meet. Although they recognised differences between East and West, they went on to argue that the twain should and must meet. Note: `Twain' is an old-fashioned word meaning two. This is a quotation from `The Ballad of East and West' (1889) by the English poet Rudyard Kipling: `Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.'
See also: meet, never, shall, twain
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

never the twain shall meet

two people or things are too different to exist alongside or understand each other.
This phrase comes from Rudyard Kipling's poem ‘The Ballad of East and West’ ( 1892 ): ‘Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet’.
See also: meet, never, shall, twain
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

never the ˌtwain shall ˈmeet

(saying) used to say that two things are so different that they cannot exist together: People in the area where I grew up were either landowners or farmers, and never the twain shall meet.
Twain is an old word meaning ‘two’.
See also: meet, never, shall, twain
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • East is East and West is West
  • East is East and West is West (and never the twain shall meet)
  • west
  • only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun
  • teach a man to fish
  • the law of the jungle
  • law of the jungle
  • it takes a village
  • village
  • Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.
References in periodicals archive
When he died in 1910, Twain had already established himself as one of America's literary greats, and his influence has been far-reaching.
The first truly American Writer Mark Twain had an uncanny eye for human nature
"[I]t is worth dodging the phalanx of editors to get at Twain's prose and off-the-cuff observations.
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1
Twain's essays from the 1860s and 1870s--"Reflections on the Sabbath" (1866), "About Smells" (1870), "The Indignity Put Upon the Remains of George Holland by the Rev.
Swinging the Pendulum: Mark Twain and Religion
"He spent five months of the last 12 months he was alive writing about Isabel Lyon," the Telegraph quoted Laura Trombley, author of Mark Twain's Other Woman: The Hidden Story of His Final Years, who has seen the manuscript, as saying.
Mark Twain's link with 'filthy-minded, salacious' secy revealed in memoirs
"You know, it gets to be difficult to separate the two of us," Holbrook said of Twain last week in a phone interview from his home in Southern California.
CHANNELING TWAIN
Much of Vogel's critique shows how Twain portrayed Jews as sympathetic characters and even considers that Twain's "Solomon"-named characters in his later writings are "positive characters" (p.
Mark Twain's Jews
Bush's last three chapters attempt to disarm arguments contrary to his position--that is, the arguments posed by the majority consensus of Twain scholars about the writer's descent into bitter cynicism and disillusionment.
Mark Twain and the Spiritual Crisis of His Age
A friend put Fishkin in touch with producer Bob Boyett, a self-described Twain fan who admires Twain's use of "social criticism with a wink" and who says he thinks the play will succeed on Broadway: "There must be 100 places in New York where Twain had drinks." Is He Dead?
Express Twain to Broadway
He describes Bermuda as it was before and after it became a full-blown leisure destination, looking at how this transformation reflected, and to some extent was tied to, Twain's promotion of the island and himself.
Hoffmann, Donald. Mark Twain in Paradise: His Voyages to Bermuda
Only this: Twain's acknowledged masterpiece, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, inspires almost universal ambivalence among its biggest fans.
Mark Twain vs. Tom Sawyer: the bold deconstruction of a national icon
And that brings us back to our Connecticut Yankee, the real message of Twain's story, and the moral of this particular column.
The wisdom of Mark Twain
The impetus behind this book is to portray Mark Twain more closely as a member of a literary "guild," to use Krauth's term.
Mark Twain and Company: Six Literary Relations
Phipps admits that Twain was not a "sanctimonious churchman," although he did attend church throughout much of his life.
Mark Twain's Religion
Why Twain may--or may not--have misfired with his literary magnum opus remains a question scholars have tackled for years but never resolved.
Did the journalist in Sam Clemens foil the novelist in Mark Twain?
The historic home in Hartford where Mark Twain and his family once lived has received a $1 million gift from bestselling novelist David Baldacci and his wife.
Novelist David Baldacci gifts $1M to Mark Twain home