wind

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See also: Wind

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

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).

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • enPR: wĭnd, IPA(key): /ˈwɪnd/
    • (file)
    • (file)
  • (archaic) enPR: wīnd, IPA(key): /ˈwaɪnd/
  • Rhymes: -ɪnd

Noun

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

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, →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
    Eww. Someone just passed wind.
  9. Breath modulated by the respiratory and vocal organs, or by an instrument.
  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
  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], , →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
Derived terms
Descendants
  • Tok Pisin: win
  • Torres Strait Creole: win
Translations
See also

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 Cadell, Jun. and W Davies (successors to Mr. 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, Britain) To cause a baby to bring up wind by patting its back after being fed.
  4. (transitive, Britain) 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.
Descendants
Translations

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

Verb

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

  1. (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], , →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, page 01:
      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.
  2. (transitive) To tighten the spring of a clockwork mechanism such as that of a clock.
    Please wind that old-fashioned alarm clock.
  3. (transitive) To entwist; to enfold; to encircle.
  4. (intransitive) To travel in a way that is not straight.
    Vines wind round a pole.  The river winds through the plain.
  5. (transitive) To have complete control over; to turn and bend at one's pleasure; to vary or alter at will; to regulate; to govern.
  6. (transitive) To introduce by insinuation; to insinuate.
  7. (transitive) To cover or surround with something coiled about.
    to wind a rope with twine
  8. (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:
      Quickly she slammed the door shut and panicking wound the window up as fast as her slippery fingers would allow.
  9. (transitive, nautical) To turn (a ship) around, end for end.
Derived terms
Related terms
Descendants
Translations

Noun

wind (plural winds)

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

References

  • wind”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
  1. ^ Rex Wailes (1954) The English Windmill, page 104: “ if a windmill is to work as effectively as possible its sails must always face the wind squarely; to effect this some means of turning them into the wind, or winding the mill, must be used.”

Afrikaans

Pronunciation

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

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

Dutch

Pronunciation

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
Descendants

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
Related terms

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

wind

  1. inflection of winden:
    1. first-person singular present indicative
    2. 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

Noun

wind m

  1. wind
  2. flatulence

Declension

Derived terms

Descendants