Wiktionary

wind

See also: Wind

English

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Etymology 1

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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

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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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.
  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], 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
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Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • Tok Pisin: win
  • Torres Strait Creole: win
Translations
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See wind/translations § Etymology 1.
See also
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Verb

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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.[1]
Usage notes
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  • 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
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Translations
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See wind/translations § Etymology 1.

Etymology 2

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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

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Verb

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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.
  5. (intransitive) To travel in a way that is not straight.
    Vines wind round a pole.  The river winds through the plain.
  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.
  7. (transitive) To introduce by insinuation; to insinuate.
  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
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Descendants
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Translations
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See wind/translations § Etymology 2.

Noun

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wind (plural winds)

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

References

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  • “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

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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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

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wind (plural winde, diminutive windjie)

  1. wind (movement of air)

Etymology 2

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From Dutch winden.

Verb

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

  1. (higher register) to wind

Alemannic German

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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

Noun

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wind m

  1. (Carcoforo) wind

References

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Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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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

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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
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Descendants
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Etymology 2

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

Noun

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wind m (plural winden, diminutive windje n)

  1. (obsolete) greyhound
Derived terms
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Etymology 3

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

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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

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Etymology 1

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Noun

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wind

  1. Alternative form of wynd

Etymology 2

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Verb

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wind

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

Old English

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Etymology

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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

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Noun

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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

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Strong a-stem:

singular plural
nominative wind windas
accusative wind windas
genitive windes winda
dative winde windum

Derived terms

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Descendants

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