Definitions for: Wind


[n] the act of winding or twisting; "he put the key in the old clock and gave it a good wind"
[n] breath; "the collision knocked the wind out of him"
[n] a reflex that expels intestinal gas through the anus
[n] a musical instrument in which the sound is produced by an enclosed column of air that is moved by the breath
[n] an indication of potential opportunity; "he got a tip on the stock market"; "a good lead for a job"
[n] empty rhetoric or insincere or exaggerated talk; "that's a lot of wind"; "don't give me any of that jazz"
[n] a tendency or force that influences events; "the winds of change"
[n] air moving (sometimes with considerable force) from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure; "trees bent under the fierce winds"; "when there is no wind, row"
[v] raise or haul up with or as if with mechanical help; "hoist the bicycle onto the roof of the car"
[v] form into a wreath
[v] coil the spring of (some mechanical device) by turning a stem; "wind your watch"
[v] wrap or coil around; "roll your hair around your finger"; "Twine the thread around the spool"
[v] to move or cause to move in a sinuous, spiral, or circular course; "the river winds through the hills"; "the path meanders through the vineyards"; "sometimes, the gout wanders through the entire body"
[v] catch the scent of; get wind of; "The dog nosed out the drugs"
[v] extend in curves and turns; "The road winds around the lake"



Webster (1913) Definition: Wind, n. (Boxing)
The region of the pit of the stomach, where a blow may
paralyze the diaphragm and cause temporary loss of breath or
other injury; the mark. [Slang or Cant]


Wind, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wound (wound) (rarely
Winded); p. pr. & vb. n. Winding.] [OE. winden, AS.
windan; akin to OS. windan, D. & G. winden, OHG. wintan,
Icel. & Sw. vinda, Dan. vinde, Goth. windan (in comp.). Cf.
Wander, Wend.]
1. To turn completely, or with repeated turns; especially, to
turn about something fixed; to cause to form convolutions
about anything; to coil; to twine; to twist; to wreathe;
as, to wind thread on a spool or into a ball.

Whether to wind The woodbine round this arbor.
--Milton.

2. To entwist; to infold; to encircle.

Sleep, and I will wind thee in arms. --Shak.

3. To have complete control over; to turn and bend at one's
pleasure; to vary or alter or will; to regulate; to
govern. ``To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus.'' --Shak.

In his terms so he would him wind. --Chaucer.

Gifts blind the wise, and bribes do please And wind
all other witnesses. --Herrick.

Were our legislature vested in the prince, he might
wind and turn our constitution at his pleasure.
--Addison.

4. To introduce by insinuation; to insinuate.

You have contrived . . . to wind Yourself into a
power tyrannical. --Shak.

Little arts and dexterities they have to wind in
such things into discourse. --Gov. of
Tongue.

5. To cover or surround with something coiled about; as, to
wind a rope with twine.

To wind off, to unwind; to uncoil.

To wind out, to extricate. [Obs.] --Clarendon.

To wind up.
(a) To coil into a ball or small compass, as a skein of
thread; to coil completely.
(b) To bring to a conclusion or settlement; as, to wind up
one's affairs; to wind up an argument.
(c) To put in a state of renewed or continued motion, as a
clock, a watch, etc., by winding the spring, or that
which carries the weight; hence, to prepare for
continued movement or action; to put in order anew.
``Fate seemed to wind him up for fourscore years.''
--Dryden. ``Thus they wound up his temper to a
pitch.'' --Atterbury.
(d) To tighten (the strings) of a musical instrument, so
as to tune it. ``Wind up the slackened strings of thy
lute.'' --Waller.


Wind, v. i.
1. To turn completely or repeatedly; to become coiled about
anything; to assume a convolved or spiral form; as, vines
wind round a pole.

So swift your judgments turn and wind. --Dryden.

2. To have a circular course or direction; to crook; to bend;
to meander; as, to wind in and out among trees.

And where the valley winded out below, The murmuring
main was heard, and scarcely heard, to flow.
--Thomson.

He therefore turned him to the steep and rocky path
which . . . winded through the thickets of wild
boxwood and other low aromatic shrubs. --Sir W.
Scott.

3. To go to the one side or the other; to move this way and
that; to double on one's course; as, a hare pursued turns
and winds.

The lowing herd wind ?lowly o'er the lea. --Gray.

To wind out, to extricate one's self; to escape.
Long struggling underneath are they could wind Out
of such prison. --Milton.


Wind, n.
The act of winding or turning; a turn; a bend; a twist; a
winding.


Wind (w[i^]nd, in poetry and singing often w[imac]nd;
277), n. [AS. wind; akin to OS., OFries., D., & G. wind, OHG.
wint, Dan. & Sw. vind, Icel. vindr, Goth winds, W. gwynt, L.
ventus, Skr. v[=a]ta (cf. Gr. 'ah`ths a blast, gale, 'ah^nai
to breathe hard, to blow, as the wind); originally a p. pr.
from the verb seen in Skr. v[=a] to blow, akin to AS.
w[=a]wan, D. waaijen, G. wehen, OHG. w[=a]en, w[=a]jen, Goth.
waian. [root]131. Cf. Air, Ventail, Ventilate,
Window, Winnow.]
1. Air naturally in motion with any degree of velocity; a
current of air.

Except wind stands as never it stood, It is an ill
wind that turns none to good. --Tusser.

Winds were soft, and woods were green. --Longfellow.

2. Air artificially put in motion by any force or action; as,
the wind of a cannon ball; the wind of a bellows.

3. Breath modulated by the respiratory and vocal organs, or
by an instrument.

Their instruments were various in their kind, Some
for the bow, and some for breathing wind. --Dryden.

4. Power of respiration; breath.

If my wind were but long enough to say my prayers, I
would repent. --Shak.

5. Air or gas generated in the stomach or bowels; flatulence;
as, to be troubled with wind.

6. Air impregnated with an odor or scent.

A pack of dogfish had him in the wind. --Swift.

7. 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.

Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon
these slain. --Ezek.
xxxvii. 9.

Note: This sense seems to have had its origin in the East.
The Hebrews gave to each of the four cardinal points
the name of wind.

8. (Far.) A disease of sheep, in which the intestines are
distended with air, or rather affected with a violent
inflammation. It occurs immediately after shearing.

9. Mere breath or talk; empty effort; idle words.

Nor think thou with wind Of airy threats to awe.
--Milton.

10. (Zo["o]l.) The dotterel. [Prov. Eng.]

Note: Wind is often used adjectively, or as the first part of
compound words.

All in the wind. (Naut.) See under All, n.

Before the wind. (Naut.) See under Before.

Between wind and water (Naut.), in that part of a ship's
side or bottom which is frequently brought above water by
the rolling of the ship, or fluctuation of the water's
surface. Hence, colloquially, (as an injury to that part
of a vessel, in an engagement, is particularly dangerous)
the vulnerable part or point of anything.

Cardinal winds. See under Cardinal, a.

Down the wind.
(a) In the direction of, and moving with, the wind; as,
birds fly swiftly down the wind.
(b) Decaying; declining; in a state of decay. [Obs.] ``He
went down the wind still.'' --L'Estrange.

In the wind's eye (Naut.), directly toward the point from
which the wind blows.

Three sheets in the wind, unsteady from drink. [Sailors'
Slang]



To be in the wind, to be suggested or expected; to be a
matter of suspicion or surmise. [Colloq.]

To carry the wind (Man.), to toss the nose as high as the
ears, as a horse.

To raise the wind, to procure money. [Colloq.]

To take, or have, the wind, to gain or have the
advantage. --Bacon.

To take the wind out of one's sails, to cause one to stop,
or lose way, as when a vessel intercepts the wind of
another. [Colloq.]

To take wind, or To get wind, to be divulged; to become
public; as, the story got wind, or took wind.

Wind band (Mus.), a band of wind instruments; a military
band; the wind instruments of an orchestra.

Wind chest (Mus.), a chest or reservoir of wind in an
organ.

Wind dropsy. (Med.)
(a) Tympanites.
(b) Emphysema of the subcutaneous areolar tissue.

Wind egg, an imperfect, unimpregnated, or addled egg.

Wind furnace. See the Note under Furnace.

Wind gauge. See under Gauge.

Wind gun. Same as Air gun.

Wind hatch (Mining), the opening or place where the ore is
taken out of the earth.

Wind instrument (Mus.), an instrument of music sounded by
means of wind, especially by means of the breath, as a
flute, a clarinet, etc.

Wind pump, a pump moved by a windmill.

Wind rose, a table of the points of the compass, giving the
states of the barometer, etc., connected with winds from
the different directions.

Wind sail.
(a) (Naut.) A wide tube or funnel of canvas, used to
convey a stream of air for ventilation into the lower
compartments of a vessel.
(b) The sail or vane of a windmill.

Wind shake, a crack or incoherence in timber produced by
violent winds while the timber was growing.

Wind shock, a wind shake.

Wind side, the side next the wind; the windward side. [R.]
--Mrs. Browning.

Wind rush (Zo["o]l.), the redwing. [Prov. Eng.]

Wind wheel, a motor consisting of a wheel moved by wind.

Wood wind (Mus.), the flutes and reed instruments of an
orchestra, collectively.


Wind, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Winded; p. pr. & vb. n.
Winding.]
1. To expose to the wind; to winnow; to ventilate.

2. To perceive or follow by the scent; to scent; to nose; as,
the hounds winded the game.

3.
(a) To drive hard, or force to violent exertion, as a
horse, so as to render scant of wind; to put out of
breath.
(b) To rest, as a horse, in order to allow the breath to
be recovered; to breathe.

To wind a ship (Naut.), to turn it end for end, so that the
wind strikes it on the opposite side.


Wind, v. t. [From Wind, moving air, but confused in
sense and in conjugation with wind to turn.] [imp. & p. p.
Wound (wound), R. Winded; p. pr. & vb. n. Winding.]
To blow; to sound by blowing; esp., to sound with prolonged
and mutually involved notes. ``Hunters who wound their
horns.'' --Pennant.

Ye vigorous swains, while youth ferments your blood, .
. . Wind the shrill horn. --Pope.

That blast was winded by the king. --Sir W.
Scott.

Synonyms: breaking wind, confidential information, curve, fart, farting, flatus, hint, hoist, idle words, jazz, lead, lift, meander, nose, nothingness, roll, scent, steer, thread, tip, twist, wander, weave, wind instrument, wind up, winding, wrap, wreathe

Antonyms: unroll, unwind, wind off

See Also: air, air current, airstream, atmospheric condition, bagpipe, ball, be, bell, blast, blow, boreas, brass, breathing out, breeze, bring up, calm air, catabatic wind, chinook, chinook wind, circumvolute, clew, clue, coil, counsel, counseling, counselling, crosswind, curl, direction, displace, doldrums, draft, draught, east wind, easter, easterly, elevate, embouchure, enlace, entwine, exhalation, expiration, fasten, foehn, fohn, free-reed instrument, gale, gentle wind, get up, go, guidance, gust, harmattan, headwind, high wind, inborn reflex, influence, innate reflex, instinctive reflex, instrument, interlace, intertwine, katabatic wind, kazoo, lace, locomote, loop, monsoon, mouthpiece, move, move, musical instrument, north wind, norther, northwest wind, northwester, nose out, ocarina, organ, organ pipe, pandean pipe, panpipe, physiological reaction, pipe, pipe organ, pipes, pipework, post horn, prevailing wind, raise, reel, reflex, roll up, rotation, samiel, Santa Ana, scent out, simoom, simoon, smell, smell out, snake, snake, sniff out, snow eater, sou'easter, south wind, southeaster, souther, southerly, southwester, sou'wester, spiral, spool, squall, sweet potato, syrinx, tabor pipe, tailwind, talk, talking, the doldrums, tighten, travel, trice, trice up, turn, twine, unconditioned reflex, weather, weather condition, west wind, wester, wood, woodwind, woodwind instrument, wrap up, zephyr

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