Wind

Pronunciation

• enPR: wÄ­nd, IPA: /ˈwɪnd/
• Rhymes: -ɪnd

From , from , from , from , present participle of *h₂weh₁- ("to blow"). Cognate with , , , , , , perhaps .

Noun

1. (countable, uncountable) Real or perceived movement of atmospheric air usually caused by convection or differences in air pressure.
   The wind blew through her hair as she stood on the deck of the ship.
   As they accelerated onto the motorway, the wind tore the plywood off the car's roof-rack.
   The winds in Chicago are fierce.
• 2013-06-29, Unspontaneous combustion, Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles.
2. Air artificially put in motion by any force or action.
   the wind of a cannon ball;  the wind of a bellows
3. (countable, uncountable) The ability to breathe easily.
   After the second lap he was already out of wind.
   The fall knocked the wind out of him.
• ShakespeareIf my wind were but long enough to say my prayers, I would repent.
4. News of an event, especially by hearsay or gossip. (Used with catch, often in the past tense.)
   Steve caught wind of Martha's dalliance with his best friend.
5. (India and Japan) One of the five basic elements (see Classical_element).
6. (uncountable, colloquial) Flatus.
   Eww. Someone just passed wind.
7. Breath modulated by the respiratory and vocal organs, or by an instrument.
• John DrydenTheir instruments were various in their kind,
  Some for the bow, and some for breathing wind.
8. A direction from which the wind may blow; a point of the compass; especially, one of the cardinal points, which are often called the "four winds".
• Bible, Ezekiel xxxvii. 9Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 5, When this conversation was repeated in detail within the hearing of the young woman in question, and undoubtedly for his benefit, Mr. Trevor threw shame to the winds and scandalized the Misses Brewster then and there by proclaiming his father to have been a country storekeeper.
9. A disease of sheep, in which the intestines are distended with air, or rather affected with a violent inflammation. It occurs immediately after shearing.
10. Mere breath or talk; empty effort; idle words.
• John MiltonNor think thou with wind
  Of airy threats to awe.
11. A bird, the dotterel.
12. (boxing, slang) The region of the solar plexus, where a blow may paralyze the diaphragm and cause temporary loss of breath or other injury.

Synonyms

• (movement of air) breeze, draft, gale; see also
• (flatus) gas US; see also

Derived terms

Full definition of wind

Verb

1. (transitive) To blow air through a wind instrument or horn to make a sound.
• 1913, w, Crump Folk Going Home, Something higher must lie at the back of that eager response to pack-music and winded horn — something born of the smell of the good earth
2. (transitive) To cause (someone) to become breathless, often by a blow to the abdomen.The boxer was winded during round two.
3. (reflexive) To exhaust oneself to the point of being short of breath.I can’t run another step — I’m winded.
4. (British) To turn a boat or ship around, so that the wind strikes it on the opposite side.
5. (transitive) To expose to the wind; to winnow; to ventilate.
6. (transitive) To perceive or follow by scent.The hounds winded the game.
7. (transitive) To rest (a horse, etc.) in order to allow the breath to be recovered; to breathe.
8. (transitive) To turn a windmill so that its sails face into the wind.

Usage notes

The form "wound" in the past is occasionally found in reference to blowing a horn, but is often considered to be erroneous. The October 1875 issue of The Galaxy disparaged this usage as a "very ridiculous mistake" arising from a misunderstanding of the word's meaning.

Pronunciation

• enPR: wÄ«nd, IPA: /waɪnd/
• Rhymes: -aɪnd
• Homophones: wined, whined in accents with the wine-whine merger

From Middle English winden, from Old English windan, from Proto-Germanic *windanÄ…. Compare West Frisian wine, Low German winden, Dutch winden, German winden, Danish vinde. See also the related term wend.

Verb

1. (transitive) To turn coils of (a cord or something similar) around something.
   to wind thread on a spool or into a ball
• John Milton (1608-1674)Whether to wind
  The woodbine round this arbour.
• SWymn ChpngBrgh|I|01It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar.
2. (transitive) To tighten the spring of a clockwork mechanism such as that of a clock.
   Please wind that old-fashioned alarm clock.
3. To entwist; to enfold; to encircle.
• William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)Sleep, and I will wind thee in arms.
4. (ergative) To travel, or to cause something to travel, in a way that is not straight.
   Vines wind round a pole.  The river winds through the plain.
• Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)He therefore turned him to the steep and rocky path which...winded through the thickets of wild boxwood and other low aromatic shrubs.
• Thomas Gray (1716-1771)The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 4, Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.
• 1969, Paul McCartneyThe long and winding road
  That leads to your door
  Will never disappear.
5. To have complete control over; to turn and bend at one's pleasure; to vary or alter or will; to regulate; to govern.
• William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)to turn and wind a fiery Pegasus
• Robert Herrick (1591-1674)Gifts blind the wise, and bribes do please
  And wind all other witnesses.
• William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)Were our legislature vested in the prince, he might wind and turn our constitution at his pleasure.
6. To introduce by insinuation; to insinuate.
• William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)You have contrived...to wind
  Yourself into a power tyrannical.
• Government of Tongueslittle arts and dexterities they have to wind in such things into discourse
7. To cover or surround with something coiled about.
   to wind a rope with twine

Derived terms

Related terms

• wend
• unwind

Noun

1. The act of winding or turning; a turn; a bend; a twist.----