sb. and a. [f. the phr. to wind up, WIND v.1 22.]
A. sb. The action of winding up, or something that winds up or concludes a course of action, story, etc.; close, conclusion, finish, dénouement; final settlement; closing act or proceeding. † Also formerly wind-up-all.
1573. G. Harvey, Letter-bk. (Camden), 47. Whitch was the Epiphonema and as it were the windupal of that meting.
1588. J. Harvey, Disc. Probl., 74. Doth not the diuel, I say, in the winde-vpall, and in fine, oftner play wilie beguile him selfe?
1665. Bunyan, Holy Citie (1669), 266. This New Jerusalem shall be the wind-up of the world. Ibid. (1683), Greatn. Soul (1691), 56. So the wind-up of the whole will be this, They shall have like for like.
1816. Jane Austen, Emma, xxii. That was the wind-up of the history.
1844. Alb. Smith, Adv. Mr. Ledbury, xxiv. (1886), 75. Geiting through a few quadrilles, and Sir Roger de Coverley as a wind-up.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., xviii. To take myself well to task, and have a regular wind-up of this business now.
1869. Ouseley, Counterp. Canon & Fugue, xxiii. 181. The dominant pedal always announces the termination, or wind-up, of a fugue.
B. adj. 1. Constructed to be wound up.
1784. Morn. Chron., 21 April, 4/3. Advt., A wind up range.
2. Forming the wind-up or conclusion of something; concluding, closing.
1843. Mozley, Ess. (1878), I. 25. Strafford determined not to be wanting to himself at the wind-up scene.
1900. Mark Twain, Man that corrupted, etc., 153. We had a wind-up champagne supper that night.