wind

See also: Wind

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English wynd, wind, from Old English wind (“wind”), from Proto-West Germanic *wind, from Proto-Germanic *windaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wéh₁n̥tos (“wind”), from earlier *h₂wéh₁n̥ts (“wind”), derived from the present participle of *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”).

Cognates

Cognate with Dutch wind, German Wind, West Frisian wyn, Norwegian and Swedish vind, Icelandic vindur, Latin ventus, Welsh gwynt, Sanskrit वात (vā́ta), Russian ве́тер (véter), perhaps Albanian bundë (“strong damp wind”). Doublet of athlete, vent, weather and nirvana.

Alternative forms

• winde (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: wĭnd, IPA^(key): /wɪnd/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• (archaic) enPR: wīnd, IPA^(key): /waɪnd/
• Rhymes: -ɪnd

Noun

wind (countable and uncountable, plural winds)

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.

   There was a sudden gust of wind.

   • 2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29:

     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.

4. (figurative) News of an event, especially by hearsay or gossip.

   to catch wind of something

   Steve caught wind of Martha's dalliance with his best friend.

5. (figurative) A tendency or trend.

   the wind of change

   • 2023 July 24, Jason Horowitz, “What the Collapse of Spain’s Far Right Means Going Forward”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     But many of those issues failed to draw Spanish voters, or even scared them, and the country’s election results went contrary to Europe’s political winds.

6. (philosophy, alchemy) One of the four elements of the ancient Greeks and Romans; air.
7. One of the five basic elements in Indian and Japanese models of the Classical elements.
8. (uncountable, colloquial) Flatus.

   to pass wind

9. Breath modulated by the respiratory and vocal organs, or by an instrument.
   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Flower and the Leaf: Or, The Lady in the Arbour. A Vision.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

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

10. (music) The woodwind section of an orchestra. Occasionally also used to include the brass section.
11. A direction from which the wind may blow; a point of the compass; especially, one of the cardinal points.

    the four winds

    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ezekiel 37:9:

      Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain.

    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

      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.

12. Types of playing-tile in the game of mah-jongg, named after the four winds.
13. A disease of sheep, in which the intestines are distended with air, or rather affected with a violent inflammation. It occurs immediately after shearing.
14. (figurative) Mere breath or talk; empty effort; idle words.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

      Nor think thou with wind / Of airy threats to awe.

    • 1946, George Orwell, Politics and the English Language:

      Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

15. A bird, the dotterel.
16. (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 Thesaurus:wind
• (flatus): gas (US); see also Thesaurus:flatus

Derived terms

• Alabama wind chime
• anabatic wind
• a sheet in the wind
• as the wind blows
• a straw shows how the wind blows
• baffling wind
• bag of wind
• between wind and water
• blow wind up someone's skirt
• blow with the wind
• Bohemian wind
• break wind
• break-wind
• broken wind
• burn-the-wind
• by-the-wind sailor
• calm wind
• candle in the wind
• cast caution to the wind
• catch wind of
• close to the wind
• crosswind
• custard wind
• cut wind
• dead wind
• down the wind
• downwind
• driving wind
• fair wind
• fall wind
• fart in a wind storm
• fart in the wind
• finger to the wind
• floating wind turbine
• follow the wind
• foul wind
• four sheets in the wind
• four sheets to the wind
• free as the wind
• gain the wind
• geostrophic wind
• geostrophic wind level
• get one's wind back
• get the wind up
• get wind
• get wind in one's jaws
• get wind of
• gone with the wind
• go with the wind
• gradient wind
• gravity wind
• have the wind up
• head to wind
• headwind
• head wind
• hot wind
• how the wind is blowing
• interstellar wind
• in the eye of the wind
• in the wind
• ionic wind
• ion wind
• it's an ill wind
• it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good
• katabatic wind
• knock the wind out of someone's sails
• land wind
• like the wind
• long-winded
• meridional wind
• night wind
• north wind
• on the wind
• on the wings of the wind
• out of wind
• pass wind
• piss and wind
• piss in the wind
• piss into the wind
• prevailing wind
• put the wind up
• raise the wind
• sail close to the wind
• Santa Ana wind
• Santana wind
• scattered to the four winds
• second wind
• see which way the wind is blowing
• shake a cloth in the wind
• slant of wind
• slip one's wind
• solar wind
• south wind
• sow the wind and reap the whirlwind
• spit in the wind
• spit into the wind
• stellar wind
• stormwind
• straw in the wind
• tailwind
• take the wind out of someone's sails
• thaw wind
• the winds
• thick wind
• three sheets in the wind
• three sheets to the wind
• throw caution to the wind
• throw to the wind
• toss caution to the wind
• toss to the wind
• trade wind
• turn with every wind
• twist in the wind
• upwind
• volcanic wind
• west wind
• what way the wind is blowing
• which way the wind is blowing
• whirlwind
• whirly-wind
• whistle down the wind
• whistle in the wind
• willow in the wind
• wind at one's back
• windbag
• wind band
• wind-bell
• windblocker
• wind-blown
• windboard
• windbound
• windbreak
• windbreaker
• wind-breaker
• windbreaker
• wind-break, windbreak
• wind burial
• windburn
• windcap
• wind chart
• wind-cheater, windcheater
• wind chill
• windchill
• wind chime
• wind chimes
• wind-cloud
• wind cone, windcone
• wind deflector
• wind direction
• wind-driven
• wind dropsy
• wind-dry
• wind egg
• wind energy
• wind engine
• windfall
• wind farm
• wind farmer
• windflaw
• wind force
• wind gap
• wind gauge
• wind generator
• wind-grass
• wind gun
• wind harp
• windhold
• wind horse
• windily
• windiness
• wind instrument
• windjammer
• wind-lashed
• windless
• wind machine
• windmill
• wind moon
• wind of a ball
• wind of change
• wind off
• window
• wind park
• windpipe
• wind power
• wind power plant
• wind power station
• windproof
• windpump
• Wind River
• wind road
• wind-rode
• wind rose
• wind scale
• windscreen
• wind shake
• wind shear, windshear
• windshield
• wind sleeve, windsleeve
• wind sock, windsock
• winds of change
• wind speed
• wind sprint
• windstorm
• windstorm
• wind stream
• windstrength
• windsucker
• windsurf
• windsurfer
• windsurfing
• wind-swept, windswept
• wind throb
• windthrow
• wind tunnel
• wind turbine
• windward
• windy
• you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows
• zonal wind

 

Descendants

• Tok Pisin: win
• Torres Strait Creole: win

Translations

See wind/translations § Etymology 1.

See also

• blizzard
• breeze
• cyclone
• dust devil
• gale
• gust
• high wind
• hurricane
• nor'easter
• northeaster
• northwester
• sou'easter
• southeaster
• southwester
• sou'wester
• storm
• tempest
• tornado
• twister
• typhoon
• zephyr

 

Verb

wind (third-person singular simple present winds, present participle winding, simple past and past participle winded or (proscribed) wound)

1. (transitive) To blow air through a wind instrument or horn to make a sound.
   • 1796, Gottfried Augustus Bürger, “The Chase”, in [Walter Scott], transl., The Chase, and William and Helen: Two Ballads, from the German […], Edinburgh: […] Mundell and Son, […], for Manners and Miller, […]; and sold by T[homas] Cadell, Jun. and W[illiam] Davies (successors to Mr. [Thomas] Cadell) […], →OCLC, stanza I, page 1:

     Earl Walter winds his bugle horn; / To horſe, to horſe, halloo, halloo! / His fiery courſer ſnuffs the morn, / And thronging ſerfs their Lord purſue.

   • 1913, Edith Constance Holme, Crump Folk Going Home, page 136:

     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

   • 1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia:

     "If your Majesty is ever to use the Horn," said Trufflehunter, "I think the time has now come." Caspian had of course told them of this treasure several days ago./ […] /"Then in the name of Aslan we will wind Queen Susan's Horn," said Caspian.

2. (transitive) To cause (someone) to become breathless, as by a blow to the abdomen, or by physical exertion, running, etc.

   The boxer was winded during round two.

3. (transitive, British) To cause a baby to bring up wind by patting its back after being fed.
4. (transitive, 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.
• A similar solecism occurs in the use (in this sense) of the pronunciation /waɪnd/, sometimes heard in singing and oral reading of verse, e.g., The huntsman /waɪndz/ his horn.
• A British canal is very often too narrow for a full-length boat to turn around. To allow changes of direction, recesses are dug into one of the banks every few miles. They are used by nosing the boat into the recess, and then pulling the stern around until the bow can be pulled out with the boat facing the opposite direction. For a motorised boat, the stern is moved around by using engine power with the rudder hard over; however, for horse-drawn boats (the vast majority of boats for the first 160 years), the crew would pole the stern around. It is irrelevant whether or not the wind then strikes the boat on the opposite side. However, the poling is analogous to what would often be required to allow a sailing boat setting off from a mooring to catch the wind on the most advantageous side for a safe departure. Although there are other theories, this is probably the reason the recesses are called winding holes.

Descendants

• ⇒ Tok Pisin: winim

Translations

See wind/translations § Etymology 1.

Etymology 2

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

Pronunciation

• enPR: wīnd, IPA^(key): /waɪnd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪnd
• Homophones: wined, whined (wine–whine merger)

Verb

wind (third-person singular simple present winds, present participle winding, simple past and past participle wound or winded)

2. (transitive) To turn coils of (a cord or something similar) around something.

   to wind thread on a spool or into a ball

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Whether to wind / The woodbine round this arbour.

   • 1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., →OCLC:

     It 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.

3. (transitive) To tighten the spring of a clockwork mechanism such as that of a clock.

   Please wind that old-fashioned alarm clock.

4. (transitive) To entwist; to enfold; to encircle.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     Sleep, and I will wind thee in arms.

5. (intransitive) To travel in a way that is not straight.

   Vines wind round a pole.  The river winds through the plain.

   • 1829 May 2, [Walter Scott], Anne of Geierstein; or, The Maiden of the Mist. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh:  […] [Ballantyne and Company] for Cadell and Co., […]; London: Simpkin and Marshall, […], →OCLC:

     He therefore turned him to the steep and rocky path which […] winded through the thickets of wild boxwood and other low aromatic shrubs.

   • 1750 June 12 (date written; published 1751), T[homas] Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, in Designs by Mr. R[ichard] Bentley, for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […], published 1753, →OCLC:

     The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     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 McCartney, The Long and Winding Road:

     The long and winding road / That leads to your door / Will never disappear.

6. (transitive) To have complete control over; to turn and bend at one's pleasure; to vary or alter at will; to regulate; to govern.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     to turn and wind a fiery Pegasus

   • 1648, Robert Herrick, “To his Conscience.”, in Hesperides: Or, The Works both Humane & Divine […], London: […] John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, and are to be sold by Tho[mas] Hunt, […], →OCLC:

     Gifts blind the vviſe, and bribes do pleaſe, / And vvinde all other witneſſes: […]

   • 12 October 1710, Joseph Addison, The Examiner No. 5

     Were our legislature vested in the person of our prince, he might doubtless wind and turn our constitution at his pleasure.

7. (transitive) To introduce by insinuation; to insinuate.
   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:

     You have contrived […] to wind / Yourself into a power tyrannical.

   • 1674, [Richard Allestree], The Government of the Tongue. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: At the Theater, →OCLC:

     'Tis pleasant to see what little arts and dexterities they have to wind in such things into discourse

8. (transitive) To cover or surround with something coiled about.

   to wind a rope with twine

9. (transitive) To cause to move by exerting a winding force; to haul or hoist, as by a winch.
   • 2012, Rural Affairs, Anna Hutton-North, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 33:

     Quickly she slammed the door shut and panicking wound the window up as fast as her slippery fingers would allow.

10. (transitive, nautical) To turn (a ship) around, end for end.

Derived terms

• bewind
• rewind
• self-winding
• underwind
• unwind
• windable
• wind around one's little finger
• wind back
• wind back the clock
• wind down
• winder
• winding
• windlass
• wind off
• wind one's neck in
• wind somebody round one's finger
• wind-up (adjective, noun)
• wind up (phrasal verb)

 

Related terms

• unwind
• wend

 

Descendants

• → Esperanto: vindi

Translations

See wind/translations § Etymology 2.

Noun

wind (plural winds)

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

References

• “wind”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Afrikaans

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vənt/

• Audio:

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Dutch wind, from Middle Dutch wint, from Old Dutch wint, from Proto-Germanic *windaz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wéh₁n̥ts (“blowing”), present participle of *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”).

Noun

wind (plural winde, diminutive windjie)

1. wind (movement of air)

Etymology 2

From Dutch winden.

Verb

wind (present wind, present participle windende, past participle gewind)

1. (higher register) to wind

Alemannic German

Alternative forms

• wénn, winn, wend

Etymology

From Old High German wint, from Proto-Germanic *windaz. Cognate with German Wind, Dutch wind, English wind, Icelandic vindur, Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌽𐌳𐍃 (winds).

Noun

wind m

1. (Carcoforo) wind

References

• Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʋɪnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: wind
• Rhymes: -ɪnt
• Homophone: wint

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch wint, from Old Dutch wint, from Proto-West Germanic *wind, from Proto-Germanic *windaz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wéh₁n̥ts (“blowing”), present participle of *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”).

Noun

wind m (plural winden, diminutive windje n)

1. wind (movement of air)

   De wind waait door de bomen. ― The wind blows through the trees.

2. flatulence, fart

   Synonyms: bout, buikwind, ruft, scheet

Derived terms

• een uur in de wind stinken
• in de wind slaan
• landwind
• tegenwind
• valwind
• windbuil
• winderig
• windhaan
• windkracht
• windmolen
• windstil
• windstoot
• windturbine
• windvlaag
• zeewind

 

Descendants

• Afrikaans: wind
• Berbice Creole Dutch: wende
• Negerhollands: wind, win, wen
• Skepi Creole Dutch: went
• → Aukan: winta
• → Sranan Tongo: winti

Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch wint. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Noun

wind m (plural winden, diminutive windje n)

1. (obsolete) greyhound

Derived terms

• windhond

Related terms

• hond

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

wind

1. inflection of winden:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

wind

1. Alternative form of wynd

Etymology 2

Verb

wind

1. Alternative form of wynden (“to wind”)

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *wind.

Germanic cognates include Old Frisian wind, Old Saxon wind, Dutch wind, Old High German wint (German Wind), Old Norse vindr (Swedish vind), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌽𐌳𐍃 (winds). The Indo-European root is also the source of Latin ventus (French vent), Welsh gwynt, Tocharian A want, Tocharian B yente.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wind/

Noun

wind m

1. wind
   • 10th century, Exeter Book Riddle 30‎^[2]:

     Iċ eom līġbysiġ, lāce mid winde, bewunden mid wuldre, wedre ġesomnad, fūs forðweġes, fȳre ġemelted, bearu blōwende, byrnende glēd.

     I am busy with fire, sway with wind, wrapped with worship, gathered in good weather, ready to go forward, melted by fire, a blooming grove, a burning ember.

2. flatulence

Declension

Declension of wind (strong a-stem)

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	wind	windas
accusative	wind	windas
genitive	windes	winda
dative	winde	windum

Derived terms

• hēafodwind
• windbǣre
• windiġ
• windsċofl
• ġewind

 

Descendants

• Middle English: wynd, wend, wende, wind, winde, wynde
  • English: wind
  • Scots: wind, win
  • Yola: weend, wyeene