Definition of "wind"

wind¹

/ˈwɪnd/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural winds
1. (countable, uncountable) Real or perceived movement of atmospheric air usually caused by convection or differences in air pressure.
  Quotations
  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.
  2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29
2. Air artificially put in motion by any force or action.
3. (countable, uncountable) The ability to breathe easily.
4. (figurative) News of an event, especially by hearsay or gossip.
5. (figurative) A tendency or trend.
  Quotations
  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.
  2023 July 24, Jason Horowitz, “What the Collapse of Spain’s Far Right Means Going Forward”, in The New York Times‎
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.
9. Breath modulated by the respiratory and vocal organs, or by an instrument.
  Quotations
  Their instruments were various in their kind, Some for the bow, and some for breathing wind.
  1700, [John] Dryden, “The Flower and the Leaf: Or, The Lady in the Arbour. A Vision.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]
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.
  Quotations
  Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Ezekiel 37:9
  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.
  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.
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.
  Quotations
  Nor think thou with wind Of airy threats to awe.
  1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
  Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
  1946, George Orwell, Politics and the English Language
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.
verb
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.
  Quotations
  Earl Walter winds his bugle horn; / To horſe, to horſe, halloo, halloo! / His fiery courſer ſnuffs the morn, / And thronging ſerfs their Lord purſue.
  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) […], stanza I, page 1
  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
  1913, Edith Constance Holme, Crump Folk Going Home, page 136
  "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.
  1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia
2. (transitive) To cause (someone) to become breathless, as by a blow to the abdomen, or by physical exertion, running, etc.
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.
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.

wind²

/waɪnd/

verb
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.
  Quotations
  Whether to wind The woodbine round this arbour.
  1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
  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.
  1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., page 01
2. (transitive) To tighten the spring of a clockwork mechanism such as that of a clock.
3. (transitive) To entwist; to enfold; to encircle.
  Quotations
  Sleep, and I will wind thee in arms.
  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, [Act IV, scene i]
4. (intransitive) To travel in a way that is not straight.
  Quotations
  He therefore turned him to the steep and rocky path which […] winded through the thickets of wild boxwood and other low aromatic shrubs.
  1829 May 2, [Walter Scott], Anne of Geierstein; or, The Maiden of the Mist. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Company] for Cadell and Co., […]; London: Simpkin and Marshall, […]
  The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea.
  1751, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
  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.
  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.
  The long and winding road That leads to your door Will never disappear.
  1969, Paul McCartney, The Long and Winding Road
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.
  Quotations
  to turn and wind a fiery Pegasus
  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, [Act IV, scene i]
  Gifts blind the wise, and bribes do please And wind all other witnesses.The spelling has been modernized.
  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, […]; republished as Henry G. Clarke, editor, Hesperides, or Works both Human and Divine, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: H. G. Clarke and Co., […], 1844,
  Were our legislature vested in the person of our prince, he might doubtless wind and turn our constitution at his pleasure.
  12 October 1710, Joseph Addison, The Examiner No. 5
6. (transitive) To introduce by insinuation; to insinuate.
  Quotations
  You have contrived […] to wind Yourself into a power tyrannical.
  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, [Act III, scene iii]
  'Tis pleasant to see what little arts and dexterities they have to wind in such things into discourse
  1674, Richard Allestree, The Government of the Tongue
7. (transitive) To cover or surround with something coiled about.
8. (transitive) To cause to move by exerting a winding force; to haul or hoist, as by a winch.
  Quotations
  Quickly she slammed the door shut and panicking wound the window up as fast as her slippery fingers would allow.
  2012, Rural Affairs‎, Anna Hutton-North, Lulu.com
9. (transitive, nautical) To turn (a ship) around, end for end.
noun
plural winds
1. The act of winding or turning; a turn; a bend; a twist.

Definition of "wind"

wind1

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations

wind2

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

noun

wind¹

wind²