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wind1

Pronunciation: /wɪnd/
Translate wind | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of wind

noun

  • 1the perceptible natural movement of the air, especially in the form of a current of air blowing from a particular direction:the wind howled about the building an easterly wind [mass noun]:gusts of wind
  • used with reference to an impending situation:he had seen which way the wind was blowing
  • the rush of air caused by a fast-moving body.
  • a scent carried by the wind, indicating the presence or proximity of an animal or person.
  • 2 [mass noun] breath as needed in physical exertion, speech, etc., or the power of breathing without difficulty in such situations:he waited while Jez got his wind back she hit the floor with a thud that knocked the wind out of her
  • 3 [mass noun] British air swallowed while eating or gas generated in the stomach and intestines by digestion.
  • empty, pompous, or boastful talk; meaningless rhetoric.
  • 4 (also winds) [treated as singular or plural] wind instruments, or specifically woodwind instruments, forming a band or a section of an orchestra:these passages are most suitable for wind alone [as modifier]:wind players

verb

[with object]
  • 1cause (someone) to have difficulty breathing because of exertion or a blow to the stomach:the fall nearly winded him
  • 2British make (a baby) bring up wind after feeding by patting its back: Paddy’s wife handed him their six-month-old daughter to be winded
  • 3detect the presence of (a person or animal) by scent:the birds could not have seen us or winded us
  • 4 /wʌɪnd/ (past and past participle winded or wound /waʊnd/) literary sound (a bugle or call) by blowing:but scarce again his horn he wound

Phrases

before the wind

Sailing with the wind blowing from astern: a white-hulled yacht ran before the wind

get wind of

informal begin to suspect that (something) is happening; hear a rumour of:Mortimer got wind of a plot being hatched
[referring originally to the scent of game in hunting]

it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good

proverb few things are so bad that no one profits from them.

like the wind

very quickly:she ran like the wind back to the house

off the wind

Sailing with the wind on the quarter.

on a wind

Sailing against a wind on either bow.

put (or have) the wind up

British informal alarm or frighten (or be alarmed or frightened):Frank was trying to put the wind up him so that he would be too agitated to think clearly

sail close to (or near) the wind

  • 1 Sailing sail as nearly against the wind as is consistent with using its force.
  • 2 informal verge on indecency, dishonesty, or disaster.

take the wind out of someone's sails

frustrate someone by unexpectedly anticipating an action or remark.

to the wind (s) (or the four winds)

in all directions:my little flock scatters to the four winds
so as to be abandoned or neglected:I threw my friends' advice to the winds
[from ‘And fear of death deliver to the winds’ (Milton's Paradise Lost)]

the wind of change

an influence or tendency that cannot be resisted.
[popularized by Harold Macmillan's use of the phrase in a 1960 speech]

Derivatives

windless

adjective

Origin:

Old English, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch wind and German Wind, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin ventus

wind in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of wind in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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