Pronunciations (6)
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/ˈwɪnd/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
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/ˈwaɪ̯nd/
Pronunciation notes
- archaic
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/waɪnd/
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/wɑjnd/
Pronunciation notes
- British
- Southern
- Standard
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ˈwɪnd
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waɪnd
Noun
Real or perceived movement of atmospheric air usually caused by convection or differences in air pressure.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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The wind is strong today.
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.
More examples (4)
The winds in Chicago are fierce.
There was a sudden gust of wind, on which spores were borne away.
The window was banging in the wind.
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.
Air artificially put in motion by any force or action.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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the wind of a cannon ball
the wind of a bellows
The ability to breathe easily.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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After the second lap he was already out of wind.
The fall knocked the wind out of him.
News of an event, especially by hearsay or gossip.
Usage- Countable
- Figurative
- Uncountable
- Examples
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to catch wind of something
Steve caught wind of Martha's dalliance with his best friend.
More examples (1)
Police got wind of the lottery, tried to track it down.
A tendency or trend.
Usage- Countable
- Figurative
- Uncountable
- Examples
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the wind of change
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.
One of the four elements of the ancient Greeks and Romans; air.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
One of the five basic elements in Indian and Japanese models of the Classical elements.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
Flatus.
Usage- Colloquial
- Uncountable
- Examples
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to pass wind
Breath modulated by the respiratory and vocal organs, or by an instrument.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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Their instruments were various in their kind, / Some for the bow, and some for breathing wind.
The woodwind section of an orchestra. Occasionally also used to include the brass section.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
A woodwind instrument. Occasionally also used to describe a brass instrument.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
A direction from which the wind may blow; a point of the compass; especially, one of the cardinal points.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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the four winds
Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain.
More examples (2)
At daylight I found we were; in a beautiful little harbour, formed by a coral reef about two hundred yards from shore, and perfectly secure in every wind.
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.
Types of playing-tile in the game of mah-jongg, named after the four winds.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
A disease of sheep, in which the intestines are distended with air, or rather affected with a violent inflammation. It occurs immediately after shearing.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
Mere breath or talk; empty effort; idle words.
Usage- Countable
- Figurative
- Uncountable
- Examples
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Nor think thou with wind / Of airy threats to awe.
Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
A bird, the dotterel.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
The region of the solar plexus, where a blow may paralyze the diaphragm and cause temporary loss of breath or other injury.
Usage- Countable
- Slang
- Uncountable
(usually as the wind) Something irrelevant; something that can be explained away.
Usage- Countable
- Ironic
- Slang
- Uncountable
- Examples
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I don't know, man, must've been the wind.
Zack be blaming the wind with this one...😭🙏
Verb
To blow air through a wind instrument or horn to make a sound.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Earl Walter winds his bugle horn; / To horſe, to horſe, halloo, halloo! / His fiery courſer ſnuffs the morn, / And thronging ſerfs their Lord purſue.
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
More examples (1)
"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.
To cause (someone) to become breathless, as by a blow to the abdomen, or by physical exertion, running, etc.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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The boxer was winded during round two.
To cause a baby to bring up wind by patting its back after being fed.
Usage- UK usage
- Transitive
To turn a boat or ship around, so that the wind strikes it on the opposite side.
Usage- UK usage
- Transitive
To expose to the wind; to winnow; to ventilate.
Usage- Transitive
To perceive or follow by scent.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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The hounds winded the game.
To rest (a horse, etc.) in order to allow the breath to be recovered; to breathe.
Usage- Transitive
To turn a windmill so that its sails face into the wind.
Usage- Transitive
Verb
To turn coils (of a cord or something similar) around something.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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to wind thread on a spool or into a ball
Whether to wind / The woodbine round this arbour.
More examples (2)
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.
After letting the singles rest overnight, I wound one of the bobbins into a center-pull ball.
To tighten the spring of a clockwork mechanism.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Please wind that old-fashioned alarm clock.
To entwist; to enfold; to encircle.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Sleep, and I will wind thee in arms.
To travel or follow a path with numerous curves.
Usage- Intransitive
- Synonyms
- Examples
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Vines wind round a pole. The river winds through the plain.
He therefore turned him to the steep and rocky path which[…]winded through the thickets of wild boxwood and other low aromatic shrubs.
More examples (3)
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea.
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.
The long and winding road / That leads to your door / Will never disappear.
To have complete control over; to turn and bend at one's pleasure; to vary or alter at will; to regulate; to govern.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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to turn and wind a fiery Pegasus
Gifts blind the vviſe, and bribes do pleaſe, / And vvinde all other witneſſes: […]
More examples (1)
Were our legislature vested in the person of our prince, he might doubtless wind and turn our constitution at his pleasure.
To introduce by insinuation; to insinuate.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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You have contrived[…]to wind / Yourself into a power tyrannical.
'Tis pleasant to see what little arts and dexterities they have to wind in such things into discourse
To cover or surround with something coiled about.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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to wind a rope with twine
To cause to move by exerting a winding force; to haul or hoist as by a winch.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Quickly she slammed the door shut and panicking wound the window up as fast as her slippery fingers would allow.
To turn (a ship) around, end for end.
Usage- Transitive
Noun
The act of winding or turning; a turn; a bend; a twist.
air moving (sometimes with considerable force) from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure
- Synonyms
- Examples
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trees bent under the fierce winds
when there is no wind, row
More examples (1)
the radioactivity was being swept upwards by the air current and out into the atmosphere
a tendency or force that influences events
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the winds of change
breath
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the collision knocked the wind out of him
empty rhetoric or insincere or exaggerated talk
- Examples
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that's a lot of wind
don't give me any of that jazz
an indication of potential opportunity
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he got a tip on the stock market
a good lead for a job
a musical instrument in which the sound is produced by an enclosed column of air that is moved by bellows or the human breath
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
a reflex that expels intestinal gas through the anus
- Synonyms
the act of winding or twisting
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he put the key in the old clock and gave it a good wind
to move or cause to move in a sinuous, spiral, or circular course
- Examples
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the river winds through the hills
the path meanders through the vineyards
More examples (1)
sometimes, the gout wanders through the entire body
extend in curves and turns
- Examples
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The road winds around the lake
the path twisted through the forest
arrange or coil around
- Antonyms
- Examples
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roll your hair around your finger
Twine the thread around the spool
More examples (1)
She wrapped her arms around the child
coil the spring of (some mechanical device) by turning a stem
- Synonyms
- Examples
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wind your watch
form into a wreath
- Synonyms
raise or haul up with or as if with mechanical help
- Examples
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hoist the bicycle onto the roof of the car
catch the scent of; get wind of
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The dog nosed out the drugs