Wind sb.¹

(wind, poet. also wəind). Forms: 1– wind, 3–6 wynd, (4 wint, wynt, whynde, wend, Sc. vend), 4–6 wynde, Sc. vynd, 4–7 winde, (5 wende, wyind, wijnd, wyynd; Sc. 6–7 wound, 6–8 win, 9 win’, wun). [OE. wind = OFris., OS., (M)LG., (M)Du. wind, OHG., MHG. wint, wind- (G. wind), ON. vindr (Sw., Da. vind), Goth. winds:—OTeut. *windaz:—pre-Teut. *wentos, cognate with L. ventus, W. gwynt, Breton guent; orig. a pres. ppl. formation (*wēnto-) f. root wē- of OE. wáwan (see WOWE), OHG. wâjan (G. wehen), Goth. waian to blow, waft, Lith. vējas wind, OSl. vĕjati blows, vĕtrŭ wind, OIr. feth air, Gr. ἄησι (:—*ἄϝησι) blows, ἀήτης wind, Skr. váti blows, váta wind.

  The normal pronunciation would be (wəind), as in behind, bind, find, grind, hind, mind, rind, etc., and this pronunciation remains dialectally and in ordinary poetical usage. The pronunciation (wind) became current in polite speech during the 18th c.; it has been used occas. by poets, but the paucity of appropriate rhyming words (such as sinned, thinned, dinned) and the ‘thinness’ of the sound are against its general use in verse. The short vowel of (wind) is presumably due to the influence of the derivatives windmill, windy, in which (i) is normal.

1747.  Johnson, Plan of Engl. Dict., 12. To fix the pronunciation of monosyllables, by placing with them words of correspondent sound … so that the words wound and wind, as they are now frequently pronounced, will not rhyme to sound, and mind.

  The following quots. contain examples of the pronunciation (wind) in modern poets:—

1855.  Lynch, Rivulet, LXXXI. (Jerusalem), iii. She hath sinned; Like ashes now her scattered sons Fly on the wind.

1866.  Swinburne, Poems, A Litany, 17. As the tresses and wings of the wind Are scattered and shaken, I will scatter all them that have sinned.

1885.  Tennyson, Wreck, vii. When her orphan wail came borne in the shriek of a growing wind, And a voice rang out in the thunders of Ocean and Heaven ‘Thou hast sinn’d.’

1913.  Bridges, La Gloire de Voltaire, 94. When sickening France adulterously sinned With Virtue, and went mad conceiving wind.]

  I.  The literal sense, in various applications.

  1.  Air in motion; a state of movement in the air; a current of air, of any degree of force perceptible to the senses, occurring naturally in the atmosphere, usually parallel to the surface of the ground.

  a.  In general or collective sense.

  In the collective sense now always with the definite article.

  (a) sing.  Beowulf, 1132. Holm storme weol, won wið winde.

c. 897.  K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., xxxix. 285. Se ðe him ealneʓ wind ondræt, he sæwð to seldon.

a. 900.  Cynewulf, Elene, 1272. Winde ʓeliccost, þonne he … hlud astiʓeð.

971.  Blickl. Hom., 65. Ne biþ þær hungor, ne þurst, ne wind, ne ʓewenn.

a. 1200.  Vices & Virtues, 47. Se ðe gadereð mihtes wiðuten eadmodnesse,… he is ilich ðo manne ðe berð dust amidewarde ðe winde.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 23667. Hat and cald and rain and wind.

c. 1320.  Sir Tristr., 372. Þe wawes were so wode Wiþ winde.

1340–70.  Alex. & Dind., 92. Whan þe wind on þe watur þe wawus arereþ.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Sel. Wks., I. 72. A reede wawinge wiþ þe wynde.

c. 1400.  Maundev., iii. (1919), I. 10. The eyr so cleer þat men may fynde no wynd þere.

1471.  Caxton, Recuyell (Sommer), 381. On a night whan hit was paisible of wynd & of storme.

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. xvii[i]. 42. I will beate them as small as the dust before the wynde. Ibid., Amos iv. 13. He maketh the mountaynes, he ordeneth the wynde.

1594.  Selimus, C 2. Let our winged coursers tread the winde.

1609.  Dekker, Ravens Alm., G. He seemed so chary ouer her, that it grieued him the winde should blowe on her.

1624.  Quarles, Job Militant, ix. 4. A storme of wind.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 231. As when the force Of subterranean wind transports a Hill Torn from Pelorus.

1697.  Dryden, Æneis, I. 438. Bare were her Knees, and knots her Garments bind; Loose was her Hair, and wanton’d in the Wind.

1794.  Vancouver, Agric. Cambridge, 177. Water engines that go by wind.

1849.  G. P. R. James, Woodman, viii. Not a breath of wind crossed the heavens.

1887.  Field, 10 Dec., 897. [He] kicked off … against both wind and sun.

1893.  Law Times, XCV. 104/2. A gust of wind blew the plaintiff’s mackintosh coat against the fence.

  (b)  pl.  c. 825.  Vesp. Psalter, xvii[i]. 11 [10]. Volavit super pinnas ventorum, fleʓ ofer fiðru winda.

971.  Blickl. Hom., 51. Þas windas & þas reʓnas syndon ealle his.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 22630. Windes on ilk side sal rise.

1390.  Gower, Conf., I. 34. Right now the hyhe wyndes blowe.

c. 1460.  Metham, Wks. (1916), 157. [I]ff Crystemes day falle vp-on Moneday, yt schuld be a gret wyntyr, and fulle off wyindys.

a. 1593.  Marlowe, Ovid’s Elegies, II. xi. Hither the winds blow, here the spring-tide roar.

a. 1614.  J. Melvill, Autob. & Diary (Wodrow Soc.), 261. The Lord of Armies, wha ryddes upon the winges of the woundes.

1638–56.  Cowley, Davideis, I. Notes, Wks. 1710. I 357. The Matter of Winds is an Exhalation arising out of the Concavities of the Earth.

1748.  Gray, Alliance, 43. Command the Winds, and tame th’ unwilling Deep.

1830.  Tennyson, Ode to Mem., 14. The dew-impearled winds of dawn.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., II. viii. 263. The lighter débris is scattered by the winds far and wide over the glacier.

  b.  In particularized use (see also 2).

c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., III. 56. Bærn eal to somne on ða healfe ðe se wind sy.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 3087. Ðis wind hem broȝte ðe skipperes.

13[?].  Cursor M., 18919 (Gött.). Þar come a sune vte of þe air … Wid a wend at come wid-all And … fild all þat hall.

c. 1400.  trans. Secr. Secr., Gov. Lordsh., 52. An hote wende.

a. 1533.  Ld. Berners, Huon, xiv. 39. A small rayne abatyth a grete wynd.

1682.  Dryden, Medal, 252. The Climate, vex’t with various Winds.

1798.  Coleridge, Anc. Mar., V. v. And soon I heard a roaring wind.

1837.  Dickens, Pickw., xxviii. There was just such a wind and just such a fall of snow, a good many years back.

1880.  Sutherland, Tales of Goldfields, 1. Hot winds and floods destroyed the crops and ruined the farmers.

1895.  Stopf. Brooke, in Jacks Life & Lett. (1917), II. 520. A low wind wandered about like a fairy.

  c.  A symbolical representation of the wind. (Cf. F. têtes de vents.)

1848.  Dickens, Dombey, xxxi. A cherub on a monument, with cheeks like a young Wind.

  d.  fig. (sometimes = ‘rage’): cf. WHIRLWIND 2.

c. 1485.  Digby Myst., I. 45. Sle them all either for ffoo or ffrende: thus he commaundid in his furious wynde.

1787.  Beckford, Italy (1834), II. 248. The wind is up in the archbishop’s brain just at this moment, and by the least contradiction more would become a hurricane.

1876.  Hardy, Ethelberta, xi. Lady Petherwin crashed out of the room in a wind of indignation.

  2.  With specific reference to the direction from which it blows; usually qualified by the name of a point of the compass, or in pl. by a numeral, esp. four (hence sometimes transf. = points of the compass, directions).

c. 725–.  [see SOUTH a. 3].

c. 888.  Ælfred, Boeth., vi. § 1. Se suðerna wind hwilum mid miclum storme ʓedrefeð þa sæ.

a. 1000.  Boeth. Metr., xii. 14. Ʒif hine lytle ær stormas ʓestondað & se stearca wind, norðan & eastan.

c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., III. 274. Ðas feower heafod windas habbað betwcox him on ymbhwyrfte oðre eahta windas.

c. 1340–.  [see NORTH a. 3].

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. V. 14. Þis souþ-Westerne wynt.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Boeth., I. met. iii. (1868), 9. Þe wynde þat hyȝt borias.

1377–.  [see SOUTH-WEST C. 1].

1379.  Glouc. Cath. MS. 19. No. 1. lib. 1. c. 4 lf 12 b. The four wyndes, & thayre 8 wyndes.

1382.  Wyclif, Ezek. xxxvii. 9. Fro four wyndys cum, thou spirit.

c. 1425.  MS. Digby 233, lf. 224 b/2. Est wynde … hath tweyne syde wyndes oþer quarter wyndes.

1549.  Compl. Scot., vi. 61. The marynalis … hes … discriuit thretty tua sortis of vyndis.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., II. ii. 397. When the Winde is Southerly. Ibid. (1610), Temp., I. ii. 254. To run vpon the sharpe winde of the North.

1625.  N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., I. vi. (1635), 151. One Rhumbe answers to two coasts or windes.

1651.  T. Barker, Art of Angling (1820), 2. The Winde in the South, then that blows the Flie in the Trouts mouth.

1659.  Twysden, S. Foster’s Miscell., XIV. v. 27. Project these Azimuths or winds into the horizontal line.

1667.  Milton, P. L., II. 516. Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim Put to thir mouths the sounding Alchymie.

1819.  Shelley, Ode to West Wind, i. 1. O, wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being.

1849.  Lever, Con Cregan, xviii. The wind was a nor’-wester.

1853.  Dickens, Bleak Ho., xxviii. The cousins disperse to the four winds of heaven.

  3.  In reference to navigation, as the means of propulsion of a sailing vessel.

Beowulf, 217. Ʒewat þa ofer wæʓholm winde ʓefysed flota famiheals.

c. 900.  trans. Bæda’s Hist., V. i. To þon ðætte … ʓesyndʓe windas … usic æt lande ʓebrohte.

c. 1205.  Lay., 236. He þonene iuatte forð aȝein mid þan winde.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 6827. Þe wind hom paide wel & to þe se hii come.

13[?].  Propr. Sanct., in Herrig’s Archiv, LXXXI. 112/83. Þe wynt wox þo contrarious.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, vi. (Thomas), 44. Þan vent þai to þe se … &… gud vend þai had.

c. 1425.  Eng. Conq. Irel., xxxiii. 80. As thay wer wynd abydynge.

1543–4.  Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., VIII. 249. The saidis boittis witht artalȝe, quhilkis war seperat be ane gret wound.

1549.  Compl. Scot., vi. 40. Afoir the vynd.

1617.  Moryson, Itin., I. 209. We sayled commonly with a fore wind, the winds being more constant in that sea.

a. 1625.  Manwayring, Seaman’s Dict. (1644), s.v. Ride, To Ride betwixt wind and tide, is when the wind and tyde have equall power.

1633.  G. Herbert, Temple, Provid., xxiii. The windes, who think they rule the mariner, Are rul’d by him, and taught to serve his trade.

1691.  Sir J. Ashby’s Acc. Engagem., 15. If the Wind had stood, we should have had more fighting.

1726.  Swift, Gulliver, III. i. I set up my sail, the wind being fair.

1792.  Mrs. P. L. Powys, Passages fr. Diaries (1899), 268. [We] set off in our vessel for Ryde, with wind and ride both against us.

1879.  [see FAIR a. 13].

  b.  Naut. in various expressions referring to the direction or position of the wind in relation to the ship: hence also allusively.

  e.g., To gain, get, or take the wind of, to get to windward of (another ship) so as to intercept the wind, to get the weather gage of: so to give, have the wind of. To keep one’s (the, a good) wind, to keep close to the wind without falling away to leeward. To take the wind out of the sails of (fig.), to deprive of one’s means of progress, put a check upon the action of, put at a disadvantage. To turn (the) wind, to turn so as to get on the other side of the wind. (For other phrases, as to haul one’s wind, to hold a good wind, etc., see the verbs.)

14[?].  Sailing Directions (Hakl. Soc., 1889), 13. By turnyng wynde at an est south of the moone.

1563.  Gresham, in Burgon, Life (1839), II. 41. They did all they colde to tacke the wynde of us.

1600.  Hakluyt, Voy., III. 198. All the three Biskainers made toward our ship, which was not carelesse to get the winde of them all.

1600.  Dallam, in Early Voy. Levant (Hakl. Soc.), 97. We havinge the wynde of the Spanishe ships.

1629.  Wadsworth, Pilgr., ii. 7. We … made all haste possible to gaine the winde of him.

1666.  Lond. Gaz., No. 74/2. The Zealand Admiral kept his wind, the Admiral of the Blew, with eight or ten more standing after him.

a. 1687.  Petty, Treat. Naval Philos., I. iii. What makes her [sc. a ship] Leeward or keep a good Wind.

1696.  trans. Du Mont’s Voy. Levant, xxvi. 350. They are oblig’d to take the Wind of us.

1704.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4054/1. The Wind shifted … to the Westward, which gave the Enemy the Wind of us.

1805.  Nelson, 6 Oct., in Nicolas, Disp. (1846), VII. 82. To keep the wind under three topsails and foresail for the night.

1822.  Scott, Nigel, ix. He would take the wind out of the sail of every gallant.

a. 1828.  Young Allan, vi. in Child, Ballads, VIII. 379. My master has a coal-carrier Will take the wind frae thee. She will gae out under the leaf, Come in under the lee, And nine times in a winter night She’ll turn the wind wi thee.

1849.  Cupples, in Blackw. Mag., LXV. 333/1. I felt the ship bring her wind a-quarter, with a furious plunge of the Channel water along her bends, that made every landsman’s bowels yearn as if he felt it gurgle through him.

1883.  Wirt Sikes, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 339/2. A young upstart of a rival, Llanelly—not above a paltry three or four hundred years old—which has taken a great deal of the wind out of the sails of its older neighbor.

  4.  As conveying scent, esp. the scent of a person or animal in hunting, etc.: in various phr., lit. and fig.

  To take, have, get, gain the wind of, to scent or detect by or as by the wind; hence occas. to keep under observation. Conversely, to give (an animal) one’s wind. To keep the wind, to keep the game on the windward side so as to scent it, or so that it does not scent one. † On one’s wind, on one’s trail or track. † To the wind, to windward. Within wind of, near enough to be detected by.

c. 1330.  Arth. & Merl., 7956. Þis seiȝen þe sexten þousinde & comen swiþe on our winde.

c. 1470.  Henry, Wallace, VII. 469. The stynk scalyt off ded bodyis…, The Scottis abhord ner hand for to byd; Ȝeid to the wynd.

1530.  Palsgr., 751/1. I take the wynde, as a dere dothe of a person…. Let hym take good hede that they take nat the wynde of him.

1588.  Shaks., Tit. A., IV. ii. 133. My sonne and I will haue the winde of you. Ibid. (1593), 3 Hen. VI., III. ii. 14. Hee knowes the Game, how true hee keepes the winde? Ibid. (1601), All’s Well, V. ii. 10. Clo. Truely, Fortunes displeasure is but sluttish if it smell so strongly as thou speak’st of … Prethee alow the winde. Par. Nay you neede not to stop your nose sir: I spake but by a Metaphor. Ibid. (1602), Ham., III. ii. 362. Why do you go about to recouer the winde of mee, as if you would driue me into a toyle?

1606.  Marston, Parasit., II. D 1. Peace the woolfes eare takes the winde of vs. Ibid., III. F 1 b. We can take the winde, And smell you out.

1697.  Dampier, Voy., I. 391. We could smell them out in the thick Woods if we had but the wind of them.

1850.  R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Afr., xviii. I gave the large herd my wind, upon which they instantly tossed their trunks aloft.

1865.  Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., XVIII. ii. V. 36. For here are the Prussians within wind of us!

1883.  Stevenson, Treas. Isl., x. We had run up the trades to get the wind of the island we were after.

1887.  Field, 19 Feb., 251/3. A small troop of four rhebok, which had … got our wind shortly before.

1890.  S. W. Baker, Wild Beasts, II. 92. I have myself been hunted out of the jungle by two rhinoceroses which thus gained our wind.

  5.  In alliterative conjunction with weather: most freq., now always, wind and weather; formerly also weather and wind, also with the, or with one or both sbs. in pl.

  † (a)  orig. connoting stormy inclement weather (cf. WEATHER sb. 1 g, h); (b) later, in neutral sense, atmospheric conditions as favorable or unfavorable for travelling: (c) now chiefly with reference to exposure to weathering influences.

a. 1225.  Juliana, 72. Buldeð ower boldes uppon treowe staðele þat ne dredeð na wind ne na weder nowðer.

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., B. 444. Where þe wynde & þe weder warpen hit wolde, Hit saȝtled.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, xvi. (Magdalen), 220. Bo[t] tholyt al þat haly rowte In wynd & wedyre ly þare-owt Of þare tempil.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. VIII. 41. Like to þe grete wawes, Þat as wyndes and wederes walweth aboute.

a. 1400.  Octouian, 1237. Good wynd and wedyr þay hadde at wylle.

1455.  Rolls of Parlt., V. 335/1. At the next Wynde and Wedder that will serve theym.

1513.  Sir E. Howard, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. III. l. 150. If wynde and wedour will serve.

1587.  Maitland Club Misc. (1840), II. 356. That he sould keip his hour wind and weddar servand.

1601.  Shaks., Twel. N., I. v. 255. Tis in graine sir, ’twill endure winde and weather.

c. 1630.  Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 330 (1810), 341. Wind and weather were ever against him, a proverb applied to the unfortunate.

1654.  Bramhall, Just Vind., iv. (1661), 56. With what art … the Papacy … was tacked into the Church contrary to wind and weather.

1667.  Wellshure, in Earl Orrery, St. Lett. (1742), 293. If it should be my fortune to meet with prizes, I shall bring them here, if wind and weather will permit me.

1712.  Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 17 June. If it did not come in due time, can I help wind and weather?

1848.  Dickens, Dombey, lix. It is a great house still, proof against wind and weather.

  6.  As a thing devoid of sense or perception, or that is unaffected by what one does to it: in phrases usually expressing futile action or effort, as to beat the wind (see BEAT v.¹ 1 c), to speak to the wind.

c. 1330.  Arth. & Merl., 7072. xii hundred ogain fourti þousinde Ferd, so smoke ogain þe winde.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 90 b. In so doynge, it may not be sayd that we bete the wynde.

1569.  Blague, Sch. Conceytes, 261. He spake to the winde.

1577.  Grange, Golden Aphrod., G iij. I see I swimme agaynst the streame, I kicke against a gode, I caste a stone against the winde.

1599.  Peele, David & Bethsabe, B iij b. He … makes their weapons wound the sencelesse winds.

1614.  J. Cooke, Greene’s Tu Quoque, G 3. To strike Ayres, or buffet with the Winde, That playes vpon vs.

1622.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Shilling, C 4. Like throwing feathers ’gainst the winde.

1697.  Dryden, Æneis, V. 595. Entellus wasts his Forces on the Wind.

1713.  Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 10 April. This I tell her, but talk to the winds.

1860.  Miss Yonge, Hopes & Fears, I. 201. ‘Have you spoken to her?’ ‘As well speak to the wind.’

  7.  In comparisons, as a type of violence or fury († phr. wroth as (the) wind), swiftness, freedom or unrestrainable character, mutability or fickleness, lightness or emptiness (cf. 14).

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., C. 410. He wex as wroth as þe wynde towarde oure lorde.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XVII. 350. ‘I may no longer lette,’ quod he,… And went away as wynde.

c. 1470.  Golagros & Gaw., 770. Schir Golograse for greif his gray ene brynt, Wod wraith as the wynd.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, lxvi. 27. Purpois dois change as wynd or rane.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 7 b. All dependeth of a thynge that is more lyght than is the wynde.

c. 1585.  [R. Browne], Answ. Cartwright, 83. A man of the winde, and false fellowe.

1590.  Shaks., Mids. N., III. ii. 94. About the wood, goe swifter then the winde. Ibid. (1592), Rom. & Jul., I. iv. 100. Vaine phantasie … more inconstant then the wind. Ibid. (1606), Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 253. Speake frankely as the winde. Ibid. (1610), Temp., I. ii. 499. Thou shalt be as free As mountaine windes.

1785.  C. Wilkins, trans. Bhagvat-Geeta, vi. 66. I esteem it as difficult to restrain as the wind.

1855.  Longf., My lost Youth, i. A verse of a Lapland song … ‘A boy’s will is the wind’s will.’

  II.  Transferred senses. (See also 1 c, 2.)

  † 8.  Air in general, as a substance or ‘element.’ Obs. exc. as in b.

  To take wind: to become tainted or corrupted by exposure to or access of air; also fig.

c. 1250.  Hymn, in Trin. Coll. Hom., App. 258. Þu sscope eld & wind & water, þe molde is þet feorþe.

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. X. 56. Witt and water, wynd and fuyr.

c. 1400.  26 Pol. Poems, 101/19. In heuene, wiþ angels, aboue þe wynde.

c. 1420.  Liber Cocorum (1862), 34. Do hit in a barel þenne;… Stop wele þo hede for wynde.

1562.  J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 183. It hath tane to much wynde in the poudryng tubbe.

c. 1586.  C’tess Pembroke, Ps. LV. ii. Then say I, O might I but cutt the wind Borne on the wings the fearfull dove doth beare.

1605.  Shaks., Macb., I. iii. 82. Whither are they vanish’d? Macb. Into the Ayre: and what seem’d corporall, Melted, as breath into the Winde.

a. 1610.  Healey, Theophrastus, To Rdr. (1616), I 2. By powring it out of the Latin into the vulgar … it cannot but (by my vnskilfulnesse) it hath taken some wind.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 998. The Sword it selfe must be wrapped vp Close, as farre as the Ointment goeth, that it taketh no Wind.

1685.  J. Chamberlayne, Coffee, Tea & Choc., 44. If it [sc. tea] takes wind, ’tis spoiled, and has no more strength then dead leven.

1712.  J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 18. Settle the Ground about the Plants, lest the Roots take Wind.

  b.  Wind and water. (a) in phr. between (or betwixt) wind and water (Naut.), referring to that part of a ship’s side that is sometimes above water and sometimes submerged, in which part a shot is peculiarly dangerous; hence in fig. phr. expressing serious injury or attack. (b) attrib. and comb., as wind and water line, the part of a ship’s side between wind and water; also transf. (see quot. 1876¹); † wind and water tight adj., proof against wind and rain or flood.

a. 1500.  Hye Way to Spittel Hous, 615, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 52. Landlordes that do no reparacyons, But leue … Theyr housyng vnkept wynd and water tyght.

1588.  Cert. Advert. Losses Sp. Navie Irel., B 2. One of the shot was betweene the winde and the water, whereof they thought she would haue sonke.

1614.  T. Herode, in W. Foster, Lett. E. Ind. Co. (1897), II. 94. His ship had been long out and very much eaten between wind and water.

a. 1652.  A. Wilson, Inconstant Ladie, III. iv. Now they haue crackt mee betwixt wind and water A’most past cure. Stay, let me feele my selfe.

1655.  Fuller, Ch. Hist., X. ii. § 10. The good old man was shot between Wind and Water, and his consent was assaulted in a dangerous joincture of time to give any deniall.

1691.  Satyr agst. French, 27. These Female Frigats did more Mischiefs scatter, By their low tire of Guns ’twixt wind and water.

1726.  Adv. Capt. R. Boyle (1768), 260. They … had receiv’d a Shot between Wind and Water, and the Ship leak’d very much.

1876.  Preece, Telegraphy, 161. The ground line, or, as it is more frequently termed, the wind and water line.

1876.  Bancroft, Hist. U.S., V. ix. 426. The ‘Congress’ … was hulled twelve times, and hit seven times between wind and water.

  9.  Compressed or confined air; air that inflates or is contained within some body. Now rare (and superseded by air) exc. as in 10, 12 (b). (With quot. 1689 cf. WINDAGE 1.)

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 282. A bleddre ibollen ful of winde. Ibid. A nelde prikiunge worpeð al ut þene wind.

1450–1530.  Myrr. our Ladye, I. v. 17. As a blather full of wynde.

1560.  B. Googe, trans. Palingenius’ Zodiac, I. (1561), A vij. A blather full implete wyth wynde.

1615.  Markham, Country Contentm., I. viii. 109. A great ball of double leather fild with winde.

1689.  Binning, Light to Art of Gunnery, xiii. 42. How to Extract the Wind from the Bore of a Peece Geometrically, and thereby to know a fit Ball for the same.

  10.  ‘Air’ or gas in the stomach or intestines (or, according to early notions, in other parts of the body); flatus. † Also pl.

  To break wind, to discharge flatus from the stomach or bowels (see BREAK v. 47); † of a remedy, to cure or dispel flatulence.

c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., II. 224. Ʒif sio wamb biþ windes full, þonne cymð þæt of wlacre wætan.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxxvii. (Bodl. MS.). Grete ventosite and winde þat stoppith þe weye of þe breeþ.

a. 1400–50.  Stockholm Med. MS., 151. For wynd in þe hed.

c. 1400.  trans. Secr. Secr., Gov. Lordsh., 70. It sterys hete to þe body, and destroyes wyndes.

1542.  Boorde, Dyetary, xxix. (1870), 292. Make no restryctyon of wynde and water, nor seege that nature wolde expelle.

1552–.  [see BREAK v. 47].

1611.  Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xxi. § 76. An ouer-much quantity of a confection to breake winde from off his stomacke.

1620.  Venner, Via Recta, v. 89. The vse of milke is very hurtfull vnto them that are subiect to winde.

1637.  Milton, Lycidas, 126. The hungry Sheep … swoln with wind.

1661.  Pepys, Diary, 14 Aug. His pain (which was wind got into the muscles of his right side).

1702.  J. Purcell, Cholick (1714), 65. When the Pain spreads itself all over the Belly, ’tis occasion’d for the most part by Winds.

1707.  Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, 378. That the Liver produces a Wind in the Heart that is, the Rarifaction of Humours.

1851.  Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 206/1. I can dispel wind in two minutes.

1860.  Leech, Pict. Life & Char., Ser. I. 147, Domestic Bliss. [speaking of a baby] That is not taking notice; it’s only the wind.

1897.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 911. Even respectable people take the ether…, pretending that it is useful for ‘the wind in the stomach.’

  b.  To get the wind up (slang): to get into a state of alarm or ‘funk.’ So to put the wind up (a person).

1917.  P. Gibbs, Battles of Somme, xxii. 172. It was obvious that the blinking Boche had got the wind up.

1922.  C. Alington, Strained Relations, viii. 118. I tell you you’ve absolutely put the wind up Uncle Bob and Peter! They’re scared to death of your finding them out.

  11.  Air inhaled and exhaled by the lungs: = BREATH sb. 3. Obs. exc. as colored by d below.

a. 1000.  Riddles, xv. 14. Ic [sc. a horn] winde sceal sincfaʓ swelʓan of sumes bosme.

13[?].  K. Alis., 6415 (Laud MS.). A litel hole in her chyn Where her wynde gooþ out & in.

13[?].  Cursor M., 531 (Gött.). Þis wind [Cott. aand] þat men draus oft Bitakins wind þat blauis on loft.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), xxii. 99. Þe preste … castez a clath on his mouth and stoppez his wynde.

1535.  Goodly Primer, O ij b. I begynne to waxe faynte, and scarcely able to drawe my wynde.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, XIV. xxii. I. 427. His wind he never tooke while the cup was at his mouth, but justly observed the rule of drinking with one breath.

1606.  Shaks., Tr. & Cr., III. ii. 33. She does so blush, & fetches her winde so short, as if she were fraid with a sprite.

1611.  Bible, Ecclus. xxxi. 19. And he fetcheth not his wind short vpon his bed [marg. Or, and lieth not puffing and blowing].

1865.  Field, 4 March, 151/2. Which seemed to knock all the wind out of him.

1918.  H. Lauder, Minstrel in France, xv. 174. I had precious little wind left to breathe with, much less to talk.

  b.  Breath as used in speaking; hence transf. speech, talk (esp. in such phr. as to waste one’s wind). Obs. or arch. (exc. as implied in LONG-WINDED 2).

a. 1330.  Otuel, 216. Þat wind þou hauest i-lore.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 9788. All þaire wordis þai wast, & þaire wynd alse.

c. 1430.  Hymns Virgin (1867), 97. Do way, mercy, þou spillist myche winde.

c. 1460.  Sir R. Ros, La Belle Dame, 795. Ye noye me sore, in wastyng all þis wynde.

c. 1520.  Skelton, Garl. Laurel, 565. Let vs wast no wynde For ydle iangelers haue but lytill braine.

1599.  Shaks., Com. Err., I. ii. 53. Stop in your winde sir, tell me this I pray. Ibid. (1602), Ham., IV. vii. 67. For his death no winde of blame shall breath.

1616.  Withals, Dict., 573. Os opprime, keepe your wind to coole your pottage.

1722.  W. Hamilton, Wallace, 216. The Earl Buchan, tender but, and Young He did obtain for the wind of his Tongue.

  c.  Breathing as a vital process; hence transf. life: = BREATH sb. 5. Obs. exc. in low slang.

c. 1450.  Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.), 226. My wynde is stoppyd, gon is my brethe.

c. 1530.  Songs, Carols, etc. (E.E.T.S.), 92. Now deth is vnkynd; For he seyth: ‘Man! stop thy wynde.’

1658.  Sir T. Browne, Hydriot., i. 8. The Scythians … swore by winde and sword, that is, by life and death.

1812.  J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Wind, a man transported for his natural life, is said to be lag’d for his wind.

1860.  Slang Dict. (ed. 2), 247. To slip one’s wind, coarse expression meaning to die.

  d.  Easy or regular breathing; power or capacity of breathing; condition with regard to respiration: = BREATH sb. 7. Now only in sporting phrases.

  Second wind, a condition of regular breathing regained after breathlessness during long-continued exertion. Wind and limb, limb and wind: see LIMB sb.¹ 2 d.

c. 1330.  Arth. & Merl., 8456. What for sorwe & eke for paine, Sche les winde & ek alaine. Ibid., 9226. Þer whiles Merlin … Dede his out wende, to take þe winde.

c. 1440.  York Myst., xxxv. 204. Þis bargayne will noght bee, For certis me wantis wynde.

c. 1440.  Capgrave, Life St. Kath., II. 1465. She was lyfted vp and comforted newe a-gayn. And at the laste, whan she had caute wynde, ‘Allas,’ she seyde.

1529–30[?].  Wolsey, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. II. II. 27. My brethe and wynde by sything was so short that [etc.].

1579.  E. K., Gloss, in Spenser’s Sheph. Cal., April, 50. He was almost out of wind [other edd. winds].

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. ii. 14. If I trauell bat foure foot by the squire further a foote, I shall breake my winde.

1606.  Chapman, Gentl. Usher, II. i. 27. I never was more sound of winde and limbe.

1607.  Markham, Cavel., III. 8. By the many stops and stayes which are made therein, the horse recouers his winde.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., I. i. 9. Blow till thou burst thy winde.

1650.  B., Discolliminium, 39. Reformation of Religion has come … in such post-haste, that it hath broke its owne winde.

1686.  Jevon, Devil of a Wife, I. 6. Ay and he holds out the Note of one Verse till the Clark begins to sing the next, he has a pure Wind.

1735.  Somerville, Chase, I. 252. His round Cat Foot, strait Hams, and wide-spread Thighs, And his low-dropping Chest, confess his Speed, His Strength, his Wind.

1812.  Sporting Mag., XXXIX. 18. After sparring for wind in which the Black was deficient.

1830.  Hood, Epping Hunt, Advt. to 2nd ed. I am much gratified to learn from you, that the Epping Hunt has had such a run, that it is quite exhausted, and that you intend therefore to give the work what may be called ‘second wind,’ by a new impression.

1838.  Dickens, Nich. Nick., xxii. You had better get your wind now, and change your clothes.

1842.  J. Wilson, Chr. North, I. 19. Schoolboys are generally in prime wind.

1857.  Hughes, Tom Brown, I. v. Three-quarters of an hour are gone; first winds are failing, and weight and numbers are beginning to tell. Ibid., II. v. Tom … hits two heavy body blows, and gets away again before the Slogger can catch his wind.

1893.  Lydekker, Horns & Hoofs, 147. A bull … if allowed to get its ‘second wind’ … will go on almost for ever.

  (b)  in reference to diseased or disordered breathing in horses: see BROKEN WIND.

[1523–:  implied in BROKEN-WINDED].

1615.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Urania, xlix. C 2. When hee’s [i.e., the horse is] broken in his winde.

1746.  Francis, trans. Hor., Epist., I. i. 14. Loose from the rapid Car your aged Horse, Lest in the Race … He drag his jaded Limbs, and burst his Wind.

1777.  Thicknesse, Journ. France (1789), I. 18. A very handsome English coach-horse (a little touched in the wind).

1918.  Act 8 & 9 Geo. V., c. 13 § 3. On the ground only of the stallion being affected in its wind.

  e.  transf. (Pugilistic slang). That part of the body in front of the stomach a blow upon which takes away the breath by checking the action of the diaphragm.

1823.  in H. D. Miles, Pugilistica (1906), II. 206. Ward made play—whack on the head at both sides, then at the wind.

1853.  Dickens, Bleak Ho., xxvi. Judy … pokes him … particularly in that part which the science of self-defence would call his wind.

1898.  Daily News, 24 Nov., 7/3. Sharkey came back with his right, delivering several smashes on Corbett’s wind.

  12.  Air as used for ‘blowing’ or sounding a musical instrument (wind-instrument) such as a horn, trumpet, flute, etc., or an organ-pipe: either (a) the blast or stream of air thus used, furnished by the breath of the player or by bellows; (b) the supply of air from which this is obtained, usually under compression (cf. 9), as in the wind-chest of an organ; or (c) the body of air within the instrument, whose vibration produces the sound.

  spec. in Hunting, A blast or series of blasts on a horn blown at one breath.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, V. 443. Þer is noon Instrument Delicious þorugh wynd or touche or corde [etc.].

c. 1500.  in Antiq. Rep. (1809), IV. 407. Immoderate wyndes in a Clarion causith it for to rage.

1596.  Gryndall, Hawking, etc. G iij b. When you goe into the field, blow with one wind one short, one long, and a longer.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 708. As in an Organ from one blast of wind To many a row of Pipes the sound-board breaths.

1700.  Dryden, Flower & Leaf, 357. Their Instruments were various in their kind, Some for the Bow, and some for breathing Wind.

1788.  Crowe, Lewesdon Hill, 27.

1873.  Hamerton, Intell. Life, I. iii. 21. The wind in the pipes of an organ.

1915.  G. B. Shaw, Androcles, Prol. stage dir., Heaving a long sigh, like wind in a trombone, he goes to sleep.

  b.  transf. The wind-instruments of an orchestra (or their players) collectively, as distinguished from the ‘strings’ and ‘percussion.’

1876.  Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, Wood wind, or Wood wind-band, the flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and instruments of their nature, in an orchestra.

1880.  Rockstro, in Grove, Dict. Mus., II. 561/2. An Orchestra consisting of thirty Stringed Instruments, with a full complement of Wind.

1904.  Daily News, 25 Feb., 8/5. The wind and percussion are prominent members of London orchestras.

  13.  A blast of air artificially produced, e.g., by bellows (see also 12); the rush of air caused by a rapidly moving body. Const. of.

1556.  Withals, Dict. (1562), 48. The wynde of the belowes.

1594.  Marlowe & Nashe, Dido, II. i. He … whiskt his sword about, And with the wind thereof the King fell downe.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., II. ii. 495. With the whiffe and winde of his fell Sword, Th’ vnnerued Father fals.

1626.  Peeke, Three to One, B 1 b. The last Shotte flying so close by Captaine Portar, that with the winde of the Bullet his very Hands had almost lost the Sence of feeling.

1804.  Naval Chron., XII. 247. He was knocked down by the wind of the shell.

1888.  ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Robbery under Arms, III. v. 75. The bullet went so close that the wind of it half turned him round.

  III.  Figurative and allusive uses. (See also 1 d, 3 b, 4, 8, 8 b, 10 b. and phrases in IV.)

  14.  Applied to something empty, vain, trifling or unsubstantial. a. Empty talk, vain or ineffectual speech, mere ‘breath’ (cf. 11 b); † occas. empty fame (obs.).

c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., l. 289. Word nis aȝein hire bote wind.

1412–20.  Lydg., Chron. Troy, IV. 240. lt [sc. what you say] is but wynde, no þinge for to leue.

1413.  26 Pol. Poems, 52/50. For word of wynd lityl trespase; Non harm nys don, þouȝ word be spoken.

c. 1480.  Henryson, Cock & Jewel, 159 (Makculloch MS.). Of þis water to speik it wair bot wynd.

1564.  Becon, Wks., 1. Pref. As ☞ C iv. When such as are yet weake in knowledge of Christ … see nothyng in the Preachers but wynde & words.

1667.  Milton, P. L., VI. 282. Nor think thou with wind Of airie threats to aw whom yet with deeds Thou canst not.

1798.  Coleridge, Three Graves, 194. A curse is wind.

1823.  Scott, Quentin D., xix. Hard words, or kind ones,… are but wind.

  b.  Vain imagination or conceit (with which one is ‘puffed up’: cf. 9); also wind in the head (with allusion to 10).

1484.  Caxton, Chivalry, 86. A knyght that … byleueth in deuynaylles … hath gretter fayth and hope in the wynde of his hede … and the deuynours than in god.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 103. Pryde … bloweth & fylleth a man or woman full of wynde & vayne glory.

1591.  Savile, Tacitus, Hist., IV. xxxix. 198. When Mutianus had filled with these windes of hope and desire his empty vainglorious minde.

1603.  Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 311. Many … puffe up their owne conceits with nothing els but winde.

1634.  S. R., Noble Soldier, III. i. E 1. Fellowes which swell bigge with the wind of praise.

1779.  J. Brown, in R. Mackenzie, Life (1918), 146. I hope the Lord has let some of the wind out of you, that I thought was in you when first I knew you.

1918.  Blackw. Mag., Dec., 765/1. He has probably got wind in the head through living in that gorgeous Gothic pagoda on the drop scene.

  c.  gen.

1382.  Wyclif, Job vii. 7. Haue mynde, for wind is my lif [Coverdale, my life is but a wynde].

1539.  Bible (Great), Isa. xxvi. 18. Wee haue bene w^t chylde,… as though we had brought forth winde. Ibid. (1560), (Genev.), Hosea xii. 1. Ephraim is fed with the winde.

1687.  P. Ayres, Lyric Poems (1906), 306. Plough water, sow on rocks, and reap the wind.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 575. Then all his Frauds will vanish into Wind.

1831.  G. P. R. James, Philip Aug., xxi. But, in the mean time, we are disputing about wind.

1850.  Carlyle, Latter-day Pamph., v. 25. Is Society become wholly a bag of wind, then, ballasted by guineas?

  15.  In various proverbial and other expressions, figuring or denoting a force, agency or influence that drives or carries one (or something) along, or that strikes upon one (or something), or to which one (or something) is exposed.

  esp. in phrases (with variations: see quots.) What wind blows you here?; † All this wind shakes no corn (obs.); It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good (orig. † to good: cf. 3). To raise the wind: see RAISE v. 7. To sow the wind and reap the whirlwind: see WHIRLWIND 2.

  (a)  in neutral or favorable sense.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, II. 1104. What maner wyndes gydeth yow now here?

1546.  J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 20. What wynde blowth ye hyther? Ibid., 30. To take wynde and tyde with me, and spede therby.

1579–80.  North, Plutarch (1595), 996 (Antonius). To tell him what wind brought him thither.

1599.  Shaks., Hen. V., III. iii. 30. Whiles yet the coole and temperate Wind of Grace O’re-blowes the filthy and contagious Clouds.

1639.  Mayne, City Match, I. iii. All this is possible, And in the starres and windes.

1663.  Patrick, Parab. Pilgr., xxvii. (1687), 309. When we have the Wind and Tyde of these pleasures to help us forward.

1859.  Meredith, R. Feverel, xxii. A good wind of laughter had relieved him of much of the blight of self-deception, and oddness, and extravagance.

1877.  Dowden, Shaks. Prim., v. 54. Shakspere is not yet caught up in the passionate wind of his own imagination.

  (b)  in unfavorable sense.

c. 897.  K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., xlii. 306. Ne læte ʓe eow ælcre lare wind awecggan. [Eph. iv. 14.]

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 26995. Quat es mans lijf bot … a rek þat … skailles wit a windes blast?

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. XIX. 32. The worlde is a wykkede wynde to hem þat wolde treuthe.

c. 1450.  Cast. Persev., 2542. It is good, whon-so þe wynde blowe, A man to haue sum-what of his owe.

c. 1480.  Henryson, Cock & Fox, 211. This wikkit wind of adulatioun.

1526.  Tindale, Eph. iv. 14. Waverynge and caryed with every wynde of doctryne.

1546.  J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 30. All this winde shakis no corne. Ibid., 77. An yll wynde that blowth no man to good, men say.

1573–80.  Tusser, Husb. (1878), 29. It is an ill winde turnes none to good.

1589.  R. Harvey, Pl. Perc. (1590), 1. All this wind shakes none of my Corne.

1633.  G. Herbert, Temple, Affliction (1st). Thus thinne and lean without a fence or friend, I was blown through with ev’ry storm and winde.

c. 1665.  Mrs. Hutchinson, Mem. Col. Hutchinson (1846), 19. They … may let loose the winds of passion to bring in a flood of sorrow.

1693.  Congreve, Old Bach., II. i. ’Tis an ill Wind that blows no body good.

1768.  [see TEMPER v. 2].

1776.  Hume, Hist. Eng., Life (1778), I. p. xiii. This variety of winds and seasons to which my writings had been exposed.

1815.  Wordsw., Sonn., ‘Weak is the will of Man.’ Wreaths that endure affliction’s heaviest shower, And do not shrink from sorrow’s keenest wind.

1833.  Mrs. Browning, Prometh. Bound, 1152. Such a wind of pride Impelled thee of yore full sail upon these rocks.

  b.  In expressions referring to a tendency, turn or condition of affairs:

  e.g., to know which say the wind blows; the wind has changed; † is the wind in that corner or door? (see CORNER sb.¹ 8, DOOR 6 c); to sail with every (shift of) wind, to turn every change of circumstance to one’s advantage; † to have the wind at will, to have circumstances or conditions favorable for one’s purpose.

c. 1400.  Gamelyn, 703. To telle him tydynges how the wind was went.

1470–1668.  [see DOOR 6 c].

1546.  J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 75. I … knew, which waie the winde blewe.

1560.  Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 334 b. The Byshoppes of Germany hauynge the wynde at wyll, restore the same.

1562.  Bullingham, in Foxe, A. & M. (1563), 1541/1. Wel Palmer (sayd I) is the wind in that corner with you? I warrant you it wyl blow you to litle ease at thend.

1615.  Swetnam, Arraignm. Wom., To Rdr. A 3. You may perceiue the winde is changed into another dore.

1672.  W. Walker, Parœm., 9. To have the wind with one.

1695.  Congreve, Love for L., IV. xiii. The Wind’s chang’d?

1710.  R. G., Sacheverell’s Def., 7. We see the Dissenters can Sail with every Wind.

1818.  Scott, Br. Lamm., xxv. ‘Have I heard!!!’ said Caleb (who now found how the wind set).

1859.  Farrar, Julian Home, iv. Miss Sprong…, seeing how the wind lay, had tried to drop little malicious hints against the favourite nephew.

  16.  a. To get or take wind: to be revealed or divulged, become known, transpire. Now rare.

1667.  Dryden & Dk. Newc., Sir M. Mar-all, iv. i. Keep this Wooing secret; if it takes the least wind, old Moody will be sure to hinder it.

1682.  News fr. France, 15. So the thing got wind, and was lookt on as a great impiety.

1711.  Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 30 Dec. Masham’s being a lord begins to take wind: nothing at Court can be kept a secret.

1808.  Scott, Lett. to Ellis, 23 Dec. in Lockhart. Do you know the Review begins to get wind here!

1855.  Prescott, Philip II., I. II. vi. 401. Long before that time, the project had taken wind, and created a general sensation through the country.

  b.  To get wind of: to receive information or a hint of, to come to know (cf. 4). Also with clause. Hence, in recent use, wind = a hint or slight intimation (of). (Cf. F. avoir le vent de, Cotgr.)

1809.  Malkin, Gil Blas, VII. vii. ¶ 3. The corregidor … got wind of our correspondence.

1866.  P’cess Alice, Mem. (1884), 133. They retreated again, when they got wind that troops were assembling.

1888.  Stevenson, Black Arrow, IV. iv. Some wind of the disaster seemed to find its way … even to the chamber where the ringers were leaping on their ropes.

1917.  T. R. Glover, From Pericles to Philip, xii. 378. It may be that the Spartan government had some wind of this.

  IV.  Phrases with prepositions.

  Before the wind: see BEFORE B. 1 b.

  17.  By the († a) wind (Naut.): as near as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing (see BY prep. 9).

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., I. xvii. 19. Hauing stroke our sayles, we did nothing but lie by the winde.

a. 1612.  J. Melville, Celeusma Naut. (MS.). With chearfull schowt and mirrie plesant sounde Scho saild fast be ye winde.

1627.  J. Smith, Sea Gram., ix. 42. All your Sheats, Brases, and Tackes are trimmed by a Winde.

1697.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3315/1. The best Sailer I ever met with by a Wind.

1794.  Rigging & Seamanship, 247*.

1806.  Moore, Steersman’s Song, ii. When by the wind close-hauled we go.

  18.  Down (the) wind. a. In the direction in which the wind is blowing; along the course of the wind. Also down-wind (attrib.), situated in this direction, ‘lee.’

1604.  Shaks., Oth., III. iii. 262. I’ld whistle her off, and let her downe the winde, To prey at Fortune.

1674.  N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., I. (1677), 93. The Hare … will … run upon a side or down the Wind.

1780.  Cowper, Progr. Err., 333. Down the wind she swims, and sails away.

1834.  Medwin, Angler in Wales, I. 235. I have had a hundred trimmers floating down the wind.

1855.  Kingsley, Westw. Ho! xxxii. The Spaniard fell off again, and went away dead down wind.

1885.  Ld. Walsingham, Shooting, 141 (Badm. Libr.). It is best to ‘give the dogs the wind’ at the beginning of the day—that is, to start down wind and gradually to work the ground in the direction from which it blows.

1895.  C. J. Cornish, Wild England, 184. We … found that … the birds had all run to the edge. Here we made the mistake of working the down-wind side first.

  † b.  fig. Towards decay or ruin; into or (commonly) in a depressed or unfortunate condition, in evil plight; to go down the wind, to ‘go down,’ decline. Obs.

1600.  Holland, Livy, XXXIV. xxiii. When they saw him downe the wind and fortune to frowne upon him.

1671.  trans. Machiavelli’s Marr. Belphegor, 141. Though [he] was of one of the noblest Families…, yet he was look’d upon as down the winde [orig. poverissimo].

1673.  Cave, Prim. Chr., II. vi. 147. In the time of Constantine when Paganism began to go down the wind. Ibid. (1683), Ecclesiastici, Introd. p. lxvi. The Gentile-Temples, with all their Pomp and Retinue, went down the wind apace.

1827.  Scott, Jrnl., 25 April. The old Tory party is down the wind.

  † 19.  In wind (fig. from 11 d): ready or fit for action of some kind. Obs.

1768.  Earl Carlisle, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1843), II. 356. The shops are all as fine as if they expected you, and the people belonging to them all in wind to answer your questions.

1777.  Burke, Lett. to Sheriffs of Bristol, Wks. 1842, I. 217. In order to keep power in wind, it was necessary … to exert it in those very points in which it was most likely to be resisted.

  20.  In the wind. a. In (or into) the direction from which the wind is blowing; to windward: (a) in reference to something which can be scented or perceived by means of the wind blowing from where it is (cf. 4, and see also b below); (b) in nautical use; also all in the wind (see quot. 1769).

c. 1410.  [see 26].

1580.  in Hakluyt, Voy. (1589), 474. Wee had a ledge of rockes in the winde of vs.

1582.  N. Lichefield, trans. Castanheda’s Conq. E. Ind., I. lxiv. 130. He cut and made his course into the Sea, to bring himselfe in the winde of those Sayles.

1634.  Massinger, Very Woman, III. v. Oh! how she holds her nose up, like a jennet In the wind of a grass-mare!

1678.  Dryden, All for Love, Pref. The tyrants were suspicious, as they had reason, that their subjects had ’em in the wind.

1697.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3262/3. It blowing fresh, and they bringing their Ship in the Wind, carried away their Foretop-mast.

1700.  T. Brown, trans. Fresny’s Amusem., 3. Like a heated Stallion that had a Mare in the Wind.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), All in the Wind, the state of a ship’s sails when they are parallel to the direction of the wind, so as to shake and shiver.

1834.  Marryat, P. Simple, xvi. We threw up in the wind, and raked them.

  b.  fig. So as to be ‘scented’ or perceived (or so as to ‘scent’ or perceive something); to have in the wind, to ‘scent,’ to detect or discover the presence of; sometimes, to be on the scent or trail of, be in search of.

1540.  Palsgr., Acolastus, II. iii. L j. Where we can get any meate in the wynde, thyther wylle we resorte.

1599.  Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, Wks. (Grosart), V. 230. Of him and none but him who in valuation is woorth 18 huge Argosees … haue I took sent or come in the wind of.

1601.  Shaks., All’s Well, III. vi. 122. I sent to her By this same Coxcombe that we haue i’th winde Tokens and Letters, which she did resend.

1624.  Sanderson, Serm., 1 Tim. iv. 4 (1674), I. 248. The Courtiers and Officers lie in the wind for them.

1771.  Smollett, Humphry Cl., II. 10 June Let. i. The first was noted for having a seaman’s eye, when a bailiff was in the wind.

1826.  J. F. Cooper, Last of Mohicans, xiii. The Mohicans hear an enemy!… They scent danger in the wind!

1844.  Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xxv. Mrs. Gamp … scenting no more rum in the wind (for the bottle was locked up again) rose to take her departure.

  c.  predicatively: Happening or ready to happen; astir, afoot, ‘up’; (of a person or thing) as the subject of what is going on, ‘in the business’: usually with implication of being suspected or indistinctly apprehended (cf. b).

c. 1535.  Sir F. Bygod, Treat. Impropriations, D j. A thynge there is in the wynde … which I trust in God wyl one day come to lyght.

a. 1566.  R. Edwards, Damon & Pithias (1571), B iij b. There is sumwhat in the winde: His lookes bewrayes his inwarde troubled mynde.

1681.  Dryden, Span. Friar, III. i. 32. Where are you, Gentlewoman? there’s something in the wind I’m sure.

1748.  Richardson, Clarissa, II. xliv. 304. She thought something was in the wind, when my Brother came into my dining here so readily.

1826.  Disraeli, Viv. Grey, V. xiv. There must be something in the wind, perhaps a war.

1855.  Kingsley, Westw. Ho! iv. There’s a woman in the wind…. I’ll lay my life on it.

1891.  Kipling, Light that Failed, vi. He’d have told us if there was a horse in the wind. It’s a girl.

  d.  To hang in the wind: to remain in suspense or indecision.

c. 1536.  Starkey, Lett. to Cromwell in England (1878), p. xxxix. You schal fynd me … to be no sterter, wauerar, nor hengar in the wynd.

1555.  J. Proctor, Hist. Wyat’s Rebell., 42 b. Such of those partes as honge in the wind, as neuters.

1640.  J. D., Knave in Grain, II. i. D 2 b. Hang not ith’ winde, (delay does torture).

1881.  [see HANG v. 17].

  † e.  To cast in the wind: to ‘fling to the winds.’

1652.  H. Bell, Luther’s Colloq., iii. 66. Otherwise, wee had cast in the winde, and scorned to … consider of that which now wee have plainly expressed in the Scriptures. Ibid., xi. 178. It regarded them not, but casteth them in the winde.

  f.  Horsemanship. (See quot.)

1805.  C. James, Milit. Dict. (ed. 2), s.v., A horse that carries in the wind, is one that tosses his nose as high as his ears, and does not carry handsomely.

  g.  Naut. slang (predicatively). Intoxicated; the worse for liquor: usually with qualification, esp. three sheets in the wind. (Cf. all in the wind in a (b) above.)

1821–83.  [see SHEET sb.² 2].

1835.  Court Mag., VI. 197/2. The anger of those who were what is termed ‘a little in the wind,’ was now roused.

1840.  Marryat, Poor Jack, xlvii. I’m not in the wind, at all events, for you see I’m perfectly sober.

  21.  Into the wind: into or towards the direction from which the wind is blowing; so as to face the wind.

1918.  Blackw. Mag., March, 294/2. You [in an aeroplane] are tempted to turn into the wind and land.

  22.  Near the wind: nearly in the direction from which the wind is blowing; hence fig. nearly up to the possible or permissible limit; about as far as is safe, justifiable or decent.

1560.  W. Honnyng, in Wright, Q. Eliz. (1838), I. 44. I went so near the winde with the keper, that I told hym your Lordshippe knewe I wolde in reason respecte the game as fully as he.

a. 1700.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, He’ll go as near the Wind as another, live as thrifty and wary as any one.

1837.  Wellington, in Davey’s Catal. (1895), 35. It is impossible for me to attempt to go too near the Wind.

1883.  [see SAIL v.¹ 1 c].

  23.  Off the († a) wind (Naut.): away from the wind; the opposite of on or near the wind.

1813.  Examiner, 4 Jan., 6/1. The enemy keeping two points off the wind.

1836.  Marryat, Pirate, xiv. The Enterprise was again steered more off the wind.

1846.  Raikes, Life of Brenton, 332. The Spartan was off the wind.

1862.  ‘Vanderdecken,’ Yacht Sailor, 144. Running off the wind with a quarterly sea will test your powers to the utmost.

  24.  On a (less commonly the) wind (Naut.): towards or close to the direction from which the wind is blowing; (of the ship) sailing or heading in this direction.

1697.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3315/1. I crouded Sail to Leeward to him, trimming my Sails on a Wind tho’ I went before it, that he should not discover my square Yards.

1748.  Anson’s Voy., III. v. 342. The proas … sailing most excellently on a wind.

1798.  in Nicolas, Disp. Nelson (1846), VII. p. cliv. The Swiftsure and Alexander standing towards us with all sail on a wind.

1840.  R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, iv. Clippers are fastest on the wind.

1898.  F. T. Bullen, Cruise ‘Cachalot,’ 377. We, being ‘on the wind, close hauled,’ were bound by the ‘rule of the road at sea’ to keep our course when meeting a ship running free.

  25.  To the wind. a. Naut. Towards the direction from which the wind is blowing; so as to be on the wind (see 24). Close to the wind, very nearly in this direction: also fig. (see SAIL v.¹ 1 c, and cf. 22).

1795.  Nelson, 14 March, in Nicolas, Disp. (1845), II. 15. Signal for the Fleet to come to the wind on the larboard tack.

1836.  Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xviii. Gascoigne went to the helm, [and] brought the boat up to the wind.

  b.  To fling, give, throw, etc., to the winds (fig.): to cast away, reject utterly. So to go to the winds: to be cast away or aside, to vanish utterly.

1667.  Milton, P. L., IX. 989. And fear of Death deliver to the Windes.

1739.  J. Wesley, Hymn, ‘Commit thou all thy Griefs’ (trans. B. Gerhardt, ‘Befiehl’ du deine Wege’), ix. Give to the Winds thy Fears.

1801.  Marvellous Love-Story, II. 319. The specious cant of subtilty and self-interest she always … ‘gave to the winds.’

1884.  ‘Edna Lyall,’ We Two, iii. Science went to the winds.

1885.  ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ At Bay, ii. You must throw your fears to the winds.

  26.  Under the wind: on the side away from the wind; on one’s lee, to leeward; spec. in a position of shelter from the wind; under the lee of something. Chiefly Naut. and dial.

c. 1410.  Master of Game, xxvi. (1904), 83. If þei may se hym and þei be in þe wynde þei ought to wiþdrawe hym in þe softest maner … and þan go preuyli to þei be vndir þe wynde.

1598.  Florio, Sottouento, vnder the lee or winde.

1603.  Lodge, Treat. Plague, iv. (Hunter. Cl.), 23. The healthfuil ought to keepe themselues vnder, not ouer the winde.

1698.  Froger, Voy., 42. They kept their word, so that the Portugueses conveyed the vessel under the wind into a creek.

1787.  Best, Angling (ed. 2), 131. Always pitch your boat under the wind.

1826.  Samouelle, Direct. Collect. Insects & Crust., 46. The most successful places for mothing are the skirts of woods under the wind.

1893.  Selous, Trav. S. E. Africa, 92. As he had come up under the wind, the dogs had not scented him.

  27.  Up (the) wind: in the direction contrary to that in which the wind is blowing; against the wind: the opposite of down (the) wind, 18 a.

1611–.  [see UP prep.² 4]

1709.  Brit. Apollo, II. No. 51. 2/2. Rabits when they go a grazing in the Night go up the Wind.

1719.  D’Urfey, Pills, III. 269. The Fox has broke Covert,… she runs up the Wind.

1838.  [see UP-WIND adv.].

1859.  Sporting Mag., Jan., 5. Passing over the earths, he came away directly, with his head up wind.

1874.  Kennel Club Stud Bk., 128. Rake and Romp went off merrily, but flushed some birds up wind.

  28.  Upon a wind (Naut.) = 24.

a. 1687.  Petty, Treat. Naval Philos., I. ii. The line unto which she stoops upon a Wind of either side.

1708.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4422/7. They clapp’d again upon a Wind and left us.

1810.  Scott, Lett., in Lockhart (1837), II. vii. 276. I would … endeavour to go, as the sailors express it, upon a wind, and make use of it to carry me my own way.

1846.  Raikes, Mem. Brenton, 328. Every ship … made all the sail she could carry upon a wind.

  29.  With the wind: in the direction in which the wind is blowing.

1577.  Googe, trans. Heresbach’s Husb., 41 b. In reapyng, you must regarde to goe with the wynde.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 136. He betaketh himselfe to his heeles againe, running still with the wind.

1616.  W. Browne, Brit. Past., II. ii. 48. A gallant Stag … Came running with the winde.

1722.  De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 298. We went spooning away large with the wind for one of the islands.

  V.  30. Obvious combinations. a. attrib. Of, pertaining to, consisting of, produced or effected by (the) wind, as wind-action, -blast, -current, -erosion, -gust, -movement, -power (POWER sb.¹ 13), -pressure, -puff, -storm, -supply (sense 12); serving for the passage of wind, as wind-passage; for defence against the wind, as wind-guard, -shield.

1883.  Science, II. 142/2. This in combination with the *wind-action, by which sand has been blown inland from the shore, has added nearly one hundred square miles of lowland.

1582.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 19. A great hurly burlye the *wyndblasts.

1902.  F. Thompson, Cecil Rhodes, 82. Like to a smouldering fire by wind-blasts swirled.

1866.  A. Steinmetz, Weathercasts, 53. There are two constant principal *wind-currents—NORTH-EAST and SOUTH-WEST.

1901.  Athenæum, 7 Dec., 778/2. He particularly commended to geologists the study of *wind erosion of snow hardened by pressure and low temperature.

1862.  Catal. Internat. Exhib., II. x. 12. The following designs in terra cotta chimney tops have proved themselves the most efficient *wind guards introduced.

1820.  Clare, Poems, Crazy Nell, x. A *wind-gust blew high.

1853.  Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxxv. (1856), 319. The apparent *wind-movements of our exhibitions [of aurora] in Lancaster Sound.

1900.  Jrnl. Sch. Geog. (U.S.), April, 155. The average monthly wind movement at Denver is two thousand miles less than at New York.

1844.  H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 303. In the *wind-passage of the fanners.

1903.  Daily Chron., 14 Jan., 5/2. *Wind-power, water-power, and solar-power are running to waste.

1892.  Chambers’s Encycl., X. 677/2. The British Association Committee on *Wind-pressure have reported cases of 80 and 90 lb. to the square foot.

1582.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, IV. (Arb.), 121. Foorth with her heat fading, her liefe too *windpuf auoyded.

1902.  Encycl. Brit. (ed. 10), XXVII. 327/1. A motor … driven at a rate which the cyclist can follow with the protection of a *wind-shield.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. cxvii. (Bodl. MS.). Þe vine … wiþstondeþ bi helpe þerof *winde stormes.

1883.  G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads, xxxiv. (1884), 263. In a country as open as the sea, wind-storms are frequent and heavy.

1879.  Organ Voicing, 6. If the holes in the upper-board … pinch the *wind-supply.

  b.  objective, as wind-gatherer, -seller; wind-making, -spilling (SPILL v. 13 b); wind-obeying, -outspeeding, -raising (RAISE v. 7) adjs.; indirect objective = to (the) wind, as wind-exposed, -like adj. and adv.; = from or against (the) wind, as wind-proof adj.

c. 1611.  Chapman, Iliad, III. 323. *Winde-exposed Ilion.

1621.  T. Granger, Eccles. vi. 16. 130. The *wind-gatherer feeleth the winde, but graspeth naught.

1638.  Cowley, Love’s Riddle, IV. i. I am not satisfied with *wind-like promises Which only touch the lips.

1820.  Shelley, Prometh. Unb., III. ii. 45. Behold the Nereids under the green sea, Their wavering limbs borne on the wind-like stream.

1590.  Shaks., Com. Err., I. i. 64. The alwaies *winde-obeying deepe.

1820.  Shelley, Hymn Merc., xciv. Their *wind-outspeeding wings.

1616.  Chapman, Odyss., VI. 341. A shore, *wind-proofe, and full of shade.

1856.  Kane, Arctic Expl., I. xxvii. 355. I have some eight sledge-loads more to collect before our little home can be called wind-proof.

1850.  Thackeray, Pendennis, v. The *wind-raising conspiracies in which he engages with heroes as unfortunate as himself.

1600.  S. Nicholson, Acolastus (1876), 28. Idle words,… *wind-wasting arbitrators.

  c.  instrumental, locative, etc. By, in, or with (the) wind, as wind-beaten, -built, -chapped, -clipped, -dispersed, -fanned, -fertilized, † -grown, -parted, -puffed, -rent, -scattered, -struck, -stuffed, -swept, -swung, -tossed, -waved, -whipped, -worn adjs.; wind-flowing, -wandering, etc. adjs.; wind-waving sb. and adj.; wind-winnow vb.

1582.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, III. (Arb.), 89. A *windbeaten hard shrimp.

1622.  Bacon, Hen. VII., 188. The Casuall and Wind-beaten Discouerie … of a Spanish Pilot.

1800.  Campbell, Exile of Erin, 4. To wander alone by the wind-beaten hill.

1646.  Quarles, Sheph. Oracles, v. 52. *Wind-blazing Tapours hurry to and fro.

1820.  Shelley, Cloud, 55. When I widen the rent in my *wind-built tent.

1629.  Quarles, Argalus & P., III. 3. Aprills gentle show’rs are slidden downe To close the *wind-chapt earth.

1855.  Kingsley, Westw. Ho! xxviii. The row of *wind-clipt trees.

1865.  Dickens, Mut. Fr., II. xiii. The water of the kennels, *wind-dispersed, flew about in drops like rain.

1612.  Two Noble K., V. i. 146. Pure As *windefand Snow.

1879.  Lubbock, Sci. Lect., i. 9. *Wind-fertilised flowers produce much more pollen than those which are fertilised by insects.

1820.  Shelley, Prometh. Unb., IV. 222. The *wind-flowing folds Of its white robe.

1660.  T. Gentleman, Best Way, 11. In distresse of *wind-grown Sea.

1827.  Hood, Hero & Leander, x. Like trees, *wind-parted, that embrace anon.

1592.  Nashe, P. Penilesse, 40. Those *wind puft bladders.

1592–6.  Greene, Groatsw. Wit, Wks. (Grosart), XII. 145. Wind-puft wrath.

1788.  Coleridge, Sonn. to Autumnal Moon, 7. The *wind-rent cloud.

1833.  Tennyson, Dream Fair Women, viii. White surf *wind-scatter’d over sails and masts.

1880.  Swinburne, Songs bef. Sunrise, Christmas Antiphones, III. 64. Though man’s vain desire Hang faith’s *wind-struck lyre Out in tuneless air.

1627.  May, Lucan, III. 1. Now had the *wind-stuffde sailes brought out the Fleet.

1812.  W. Tennant, Anster Fair, II. lxix. From Cellardyke to *wind-swept Pittenweem.

1877.  Black, Green Past., xxxiv. The wind-swept waters.

1805.  Scott, Last Minstrel, I. xiv. The groan of the *wind-swung oak.

1860.  Miss Yonge, Hopes & Fears, I. v. 240. Lucilla remained standing before the glass, arranging her *wind-tossed hair.

1887.  Bowen, Virg. Æneid, VI. 335. Over the wind-tossed waters.

1820.  Shelley, Witch Atl., l. 6. Some *wind-wandering Fragment of inky thunder-stroke.

1809.  R. Kerr, Agric. Surv. Berwick, 233. In years of peculiarly windy weather, the stem, where it enters the earth, is often blown about, in a whirling manner…. This is provincially called *wind-waved.

1799.  W. Nicol, Pract. Planter, i. 13. *Wind-waving … by loosening the old, and … breaking the new fibres, contributes to stint the whole tree in growth.

c. 1300.  Metr. Hom. (Small), 36. To se a *wind waiuande rede.

1848.  Buckley, Iliad, 406. The wind-waving fig-tree.

1873.  B. Harte, Fiddletown, 28. There was a fierce unrest in the *wind-whipped streets.

1710.  Hilman, Tusser Rediv., Sept. (1744), 116. A Cart Nave I suppose is to stand up upon when they *Wind-winnow.

1816.  Byron, Ch. Har., III. xxxii. The ruin’d wall Stands when its *wind-worn battlements are gone.

  d.  similative and parasynthetic, in epithets (chiefly poetic) expressing swiftness, as wind-foot, -footed, -swift, -winged adjs.

1598.  Chapman, Iliad, VII. [XI.] 178. The *wind-foote swift Thaumantia obayde.

1848.  Buckley, Iliad, 272. *Wind-footed, swift Iris.

c. 1280.  Names of Hare, in Rel. Ant., I. 133. Þe *wint swifft.

1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. v. 8. Therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.

1883.  Bridges, Prometheus, 530. Meteors … ever on their windswift course.

c. 1595.  J. Dickenson, Sheph. Compl. (1873), 11. The *wind-wing’d Naiads.

1817.  Shelley, Rev. Islam, IX. xxii. O Spring, of … love, and youth, and gladness Wind-winged emblem.

  31.  Special combinations: † wind-balk, (a) = WIND-BEAM¹ (see BALK sb. 11); (b) = WINDROW sb. (cf. BALK sb. II); wind-bar, the back of the wind-chest of an organ; † wind-barge, a slab placed along the edge of a roof as a protection from the wind (cf. WATER-BARGE); † wind-bed, an air-bed; wind-belt, a belt of trees planted for protection from the wind; wind-bill Sc. (cf. 14), an accommodation-bill; † wind-bladder, (a) an inflated bladder; (b) the air-bladder of a fish; wind-blown a., blown up or inflated; blown along or about; blown upon by (the) wind; wind-bore, the suction-pipe of a pump, or the lower end of this; wind-box = wind-chest; wind-brace, a diagonal brace (BRACE sb.² 17) connecting the rafters of a roof; wind-bracing, a similar structure in a cantilever; † wind-breaker (cf. 10), a drug that expels flatulence, a carminative; so † wind-breaking a., carminative; † wind-broach [cf. BROACH sb. 12], a name for a hurdy-gurdy; † wind-cane = WIND-GUN; † wind-catch, a squall of wind; wind-changing a., changing like the wind, inconstant; wind-chest, an air-tight chest or box in an organ or similar instrument, which is filled with wind from the bellows, and from which the wind is admitted to the pipes or reeds; wind-cistern = prec.; wind-cock, † (a) = wind-mow; (b) a weathercock; wind-colic, colic caused by flatulence; wind-contusion, an internal injury without any external mark of violence, formerly supposed to be caused by the ‘wind’ (see 13) of a cannon-ball, shell or other projectile; wind-dial, a dial showing the direction of the wind by means of a pointer connected with a wind-vane; also fig. (cf. 15 b); † wind-discusser = wind-breaker; wind-dog [DOG sb. 10 a], name for a fragment of rainbow, supposed to presage wind; † wind-dropsy = TYMPANITES, TYMPANY 1; wind-engine, a machine driven by the wind, as a windmill; † wind-fan, a winnowing-fan; wind-fanner (-vanner) local, the kestrel; wind-fast a. = WIND-TIGHT 1; † wind-fill v., trans. to fill up gaps or cavities in (a wall, etc.) so as to keep the wind out (cf. FILLING vbl. sb. 2); † wind-flaucht a. or adv. Sc. [FLAUGHT adv.], sprawling, as if overthrown by the wind; wind-furnace, a furnace in which the draught is obtained by means of a (high or narrow) chimney without the aid of bellows or other mechanical blower as in a blast-furnace; wind-gap (see GAP sb.¹ 5 b); † wind-glass (see quot.); wind-god, a deity presiding over the winds; † wind-gout, gout supposed to be caused by ‘wind’ (see 10); wind-grass, a name for Agrostis Spica-venti; † wind-hand, the side towards the wind; wind-harp, an Æolian harp (also allusively); wind-hole, † (a) the opening at the top of the windpipe, the glottis; (b) an opening in brickwork for the passage of air; (c) the hole in the lower board of a pair of bellows; (d) a ventilating shaft in a mine; (e) each of the openings in the sound-board of an organ, through which wind is admitted to the pipes; wind-jammer U.S. slang, (a) a loquacious person; (b) a sailing vessel; wind-knot, a knot tied on a rope, supposed magically to ensure a favorable wind; † wind-lap, the tongue or reed of a wind-instrument; wind-lipper Naut. [LIPPER sb.¹], a rippling or ruffling of the surface of the water caused by the first rising of a breeze; wind-list [LIST sb.³ 4], -logged a. [cf. WATER-LOGGED] (see quots.); † wind-loft Naut., ? = wind-taut sb.; wind-machine, a machine driven by the wind, or one for producing a ‘wind’ or blast of air; wind-motor [MOTOR 3], a machine deriving its motive power from the force of the wind; esp. of the form of a windmill; wind-mow dial. [MOW sb.¹], one of a number of small ricks in which hay or corn is temporarily stacked in showery weather to be dried by exposure to the wind; † wind-music, music played on wind-instruments; also such instruments themselves, or a company of players on them [cf. MUSIC sb. 5, 6]; † wind-musket = WIND-GUN; wind-pinning [cf. PIN v.¹ 3 c, PINNING 1 a, 2 a], the filling up of interstices in masonry to keep out the wind; wind-pole [POLE sb.²], each of two opposite points of the compass taken as the standard ones in relation to the direction of the wind; wind-porch, a chamber constructed on the inner side of a doorway to keep the wind out; wind-pox, chicken-pox (Billings, Med. Dict., 1890); wind-pump, † (a) an air-pump; (b) a pump driven by a wind-wheel (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1875); † wind-ræs [RESE sb.], a storm of wind; † wind-rake, ? the raking up of windfalls, or the right to do this; wind-road, (a) a track or course habitually taken by the wind (nonce-use); (b) a passage for ventilation in a mine (Gresley, Gloss., 1883); wind-rode, also + -road (see RIDE v. A. 3 γ), a., Naut., swung by the wind, as a ship riding at anchor (opp. to tide-rode: see TIDE sb. 16 b); also as sb., the position of a ship so riding; wind-screen, a screen for protection from the wind, now esp. in front of the driver’s seat on a motor-car; wind-shaft, the shaft that carries the sails in a windmill; wind-stroke, a stroke or injury caused or supposed to be caused by the wind (see quots.); wind-swell, a form of swell in an organ operated by a valve in the wind-trunk; wind-taut a., Naut. [from phr. to hold wind taut]: see quots.; also as sb. = condition of being wind-taut; wind-throstle, -thrush, the redwing; wind-tie = wind-brace; wind-trunk, a large tube (usually of wood) in an organ or similar instrument, through which the wind passes from the bellows to the wind-chest; wind-vane, (a) the sail of a windmill (= VANE 3 a); (b) a weathercock (= VANE 1); wind-vanner: see wind-fanner above; † wind-vent = SUSPIRAL 2; wind-way, (a) a ventilating passage in a mine, an air-way; (b) the narrow slit in an organ-pipe through which the wind strikes upon the lip so as to make the pipe speak; (c) access of the wind to a sailing vessel so as to give her freedom of passage (cf. WAY sb.¹ 6); wind-wheel, a wheel turned by the wind to drive some mechanism, as in a windmill or wind-pump; † wind-work (cf. 11), the process or function of respiration.

1532–3.  Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 173. Pro sarracione 1³/₄ rod in *wyndbalks, stoys, pouynchys, 4s. 8d.

1611.  Cotgr., s.v. Rouë, Mettre le foin en rouë, viz. in wind-baulkes, or wind-rowes.

1894.  Northumbld. Gloss., Wind-balk, a wind-beam or collar-beam; a beam stretching across the upper part of two roof principals. (Obs.)

1881.  W. E. Dickson, Organ-Build., v. 60. The back of the chest, called the *‘wind-bar,’… should be of strong and sound stuff.

1603.  G. Owen, Pembrokeshire (1892), 79. Arches, Coinestones, waterberges, and *wynd berges or any other hewen worke.

1576.  Turberv., Venerie, 194. Some vse to carrie a *Windbed which is made of leather strongly sowed on all foure sides, and hauing a pype at one of the corners to blow it,… and when it is blowen full of wind, to stoppe it vp and lie vpon it on the grounde.

1903.  C. Bald, Indian Tea, x. (1917), 123. This characteristic [sc. evergreen foliage] makes the several varieties of Dalbergia very suitable for planting as *windbelts.

1813.  Headrick, Agric. Surv. Forfarshire, 589. If they [sc. bank notes] be not convertible into specie at the option of the holder, there is a strong temptation to issue them on what are called *wind bills, where there is no corresponding value of commodities in existence.

1821.  Scott, Pirate, iv. He would have got a bank-credit, manœuvred with wind-bills.

1594.  Nashe, Terrors of Night, To Rdr. If they chance but on a moate or a *wind bladder, they neuer haue done with it, till they haue cleane … tost it out of sight.

1692.  Ray, Creation, I. (ed. 2), 141. As for Fishes … The Wind-bladder, wherewith most of them are furnished, serves to poise their Bodies.

1593.  Nashe, Christ’s T., 72. What is beauty more then a *wind-blowne bladder?

1600.  Rowlands, Letting of Humours Blood, Sat. vii. 83. More light and toyish than the wind-blown chaffe.

1638.  Brathwait, Barnabees Jrnl., I. (1818), 17. A wind-blowne house.

1876.  M. Collins, in F. Collins, Lett. & Friendsh. (1877), II. 158. Wind-blown daffodils.

1887.  F. Cowper, Cædwalla, i. 6. A low island, covered with bushes and a few wind-blown trees.

1797.  J. Curr, Coal Viewer, 58. The *Wind Bores … May be cast 8 feet long with a plain or egg bottom.

1838.  Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 189/1. D, is a metal pipe or strainer, which is also termed a suction-pipe or wind-bore.

1852.  Seidel, Organ, 38. A square box, called the *wind-box.

1889.  Cath. Household, 30 Nov., 4. Traceried *windbraces.

1890.  W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 51. The *wind-bracing was fitted in its long diamonds of lattice.

1694.  Salmon, Bate’s Dispens. (1713), 620/1. The sugared oily Carminative, or *Wind-breaker.

1609.  Rowley, Search for Money (Percy Soc.), 17. Good holsome *windebreaking pippins.

1653.  Urquhart, Rabelais, II. xxx. 198. A … player on that instrument which is called a *windbroach.

1702.  T. Brown, Lett. fr. Dead, Wks. 1730, II. 234. To fumble out a fine sonata upon a wind-broach.

1723.  E. Stone, trans. Bion’s Math. Instrum., III. ii. (1758), 95. The Construction of the *Wind-Cane.

1610.  Folkingham, Feudigraphia, 10. Sweeping or floating Waters, which flit and fleete to and fro with *wind-catches.

1665.  W. Dodson, Designe Draining Gt. Level Fens, 13. Those Banks I did not make for Sea Banks,… but laid them near to avoid a Winde-catch.

1593.  Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., V. i. 57. *Wind-changing Warwicke now can change no more.

1797.  Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XIII. 487/2. (Organ) IKKK is the *wind-chest, which is a square box fitted close to the under side of the lower board.

1852.  Seidel, Organ, 52. The length of the wind-chest depends on the compass of the key-board.

1880.  E. J. Hopkins, in Grove, Dict. Mus., II. 605/1. The *wind-cisterns or wind-chests.

1610.  R. Vaughan, Water-Workes, M 4 b. You mow one day, you ted an other, you spend one in gathering it into *winde-cockes.

1920.  Masefield, Right Royal, 6.

1593.  Nashe, Christ’s T., 45 b. Euery part of thee [shall] be wrunge as with the *wind-chollick.

1654.  Gataker, Disc. Apol., 57. I came home, arrested with a sharp fit of the Wind-Colick.

1731.  Fielding, Tom Thumb, I. iii. I feel a sudden Pain within my Breast, Nor know I whether it arise from Love, Or only the Wind-Cholick.

1822–7.  Good, Study Med. (1829), I. 239. The oppressive distention of wind-colic.

1857.  Dunglison, Med. Lex., Wind of a ball, a term applied to the compression of air, supposed to be produced by the passage of a ball near a part of the body, so as to occasion what has been called a *wind contusion.

1872.  Longmore, Gunshot Injuries, 95. The true explanation of the phenomena observed in cases of so-called ‘wind contusions’ is to be found in the peculiar direction, the degree of obliquity, with which the missile has happened to impinge against the elastic skin.

1706.  in J. Ashton, Soc. Life Reign Q. Anne (1882), II. 56. The *WIND DIAL, lately set up at Grigsby’s Coffee and Chocolate House,… being of Constant use to those that are in any wise Concerned in Navigation.

1761.  Ld. Hardwicke, in Life (1847), III. xiv. 257. A great change was made in the political wind-dial before you left us.

1676.  J. Cooke, Mellif. Chirurg., Alph. Table, *Wind-discussers.

1860.  Fitz-Roy, in Merc. Marine Mag., VII. 344. *‘Wind dogs,’ and the rainbow, are more or less significant of increasing wind.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 386. The Timpany, which … may be called in English the *wind dropsie.

1822–7.  Good, Study Med. (1829), V. 451. Making an artificial opening into the cavity of the abdomen in the case of wind-dropsy, as well as in that of water-dropsy.

1669.  Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 21, note. *Wind-Engines for the raising of Water.

c. 975.  Rushw. Gosp., Luke iii. 17. His … *wind fone in honda his.

1761.  Descr. S. Carolina, 7. Afterwards it is … winnowed, which was formerly a very tedious Operation, but it is now performed … by a very simple Machine, a Wind-Fan.

1668.  Charleton, Onomast., 64. Accipiter Tinnunculus,… the *Wind-vanner.

a. 1836.  Johnes, in Mrs. Bray, Tamar & Tavy (1838), I. 346. The kestrel, called here the wind-fanner and windhover, from its motion when hovering over the same spot in search of its quarry.

1648.  in J. Davidson, Inverurie (1878), 302. The heritors in all parishes are ordained to keep the kirk *wind-fast and water-tight.

1601.  Stanford Churchw. Acc., in Antiquary (1888), May, 213. To John Rayner for *wind-fillinge the Church wall ij^s.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, V. vi. 86. He … Maid hym lycht *windflaucht [orig. revolutus] on the ground vnclene.

1651.  French, Distill., vi. 190. Put those cakes … into a *Winde Furnace.

1683.  K. Digby’s Chym. Secr., 132. Put them in a Wind-Furnace to Calcine.

1704.  J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. s.v. Furnace, A Wind Furnace, or Furnace for Fusions, which is so called, because the Wind comes forcibly to blow the Coals, in order to Melt or Fuse the Matter in the Crucible or Coppel.

1763.  W. Lewis, Comm. Philos.-Techn., 11. A Wind-Furnace, for the fusion of metals.

1869.  Roscoe, Elem. Chem. (1871), 240. The oldest method of manufacturing wrought iron was to reduce it at once from the ore by heating in a wind-furnace with charcoal or coal.

1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., Wind-furnace, a furnace in which a strong heat is obtained … by means of a powerful draft, depending on a narrow flue or chimney of considerable elevation. Ibid. (1884), Suppl. 948/2. Wind furnace (Metallurgy), one depending upon the draft of a chimney, as distinguished from a blast furnace.

1585.  Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 262/1. Cucurbitula,… a *wind glasse, cupping glasse, or boxing glasse.

1594.  Marlowe & Nashe, Dido, I. i. The *Wind-god warring now with Fate.

1803.  H. K. White, Rem., To Herb Rosemary, iii. The wind-god, as he flies, Moans hollow in the Forest trees.

1662.  R. Mathew, Unl. Alch., 144. A man near fourteen years, afflicted … with the *Wind-Gout in his hands.

1847.  Leichhardt, Jrnl., xi. 339. This was not covered with … the dry *wind-grass of the plains north of the Staaten.

1884.  Miller, Plant-n., Apera (Agrostis) Spica-venti, Corn-grass, Wind-grass.

1670.  Nye, Gunnery, II. 12. When you come to your Peece, set your Boudge barrel on the *wind-hand thereof.

1813.  Hogg, Queen’s Wake (1814), 109. When … *wind-harp at thy window swells.

1841–4.  Emerson, Ess., Nature, Wks. (Bohn), I. 225. The musical steaming odorous south wind, which converts all trees to wind-harps.

13[?].  Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1336. Þay … grayþely departed Þe wesaunt fro þe *wynt-hole.

1683.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xviii. ¶ 2. Lay the ends of each Brick about three Inches off each other, to serve for Wind-holes.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. xiv. (Roxb.), 7/1. The wind hole, a square hole in the middle of the under board [of a pair of bellows].

1802.  Mawe, Min. Derbysh., Gloss., Wind-holes, shafts or sumps sunk to convey wind or air.

1881.  W. E. Dickson, Organ-Build., ix. 122. Let us be sure that the flow of wind to that pipe is not interrupted … by a chip in the wind-hole.

1893.  Columbus (Ohio) Disp., 7 Aug. The few workers present are effectually playing the part of *windjammers and many rumors are afloat.

1899.  Harmsworth Mag., March, 102/1. A large three-masted wind-jammer was caught by the gale and disabled in next to no time.

1909.  Athenæum, 31 July, 121/3. It deals with the homeward passage of a big steel ‘windjammer’ from Calcutta—a typical chapter from the life of merchant-service Jack.

1868–9.  Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., 367. The witches of Lapland sold *‘wind-knots’ tied on a rope to their seafaring customers.

1570.  Levins, Manip., 27/29. Ye *Wyndlappe, lingula.

1789.  Trans. Soc. Arts, II. 210. We can do nothing with the guns when there is any swell, or *wind lipper.

1815.  W. Scoresby, in Mem. Wernerian Soc., II. 324, note. The first effects of a breeze of wind on smooth water is by seamen called wind-lipper.

1898.  Miss Yonge, J. Keble’s Parishes, 173. *Wind-list, white streak of faint cloud across a blue sky, showing the direction of the wind.

a. 1687.  Petty, Treat. Naval Philos., I. ii. The next enquiry must be, what extent of Sail our Vessel must carry,… and from thence the *Wind-loft.

1829.  R. Stuart, Anecd. Steam Eng., I. 149. Air remained in the cylinder, and prevented … the fall of the piston…: from this cause alone, (and which was afterwards known by the term of *wind-logged) this engine must have soon ceased its motion.

1745.  in 6th Rep. Dep. Kpr., App. II. 122. A self-regulating *Wind Machine.

1799.  Hull Advertiser, 7 Sept., 4/2. These wind machines … species of gigantic bellows.

1812.  Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., I. 341. The annual expence of repairs … will not much exceed that of a wind machine.

1881.  Sir W. Thomson, in Nature, 8 Sept., 434/2. It is most probable that windmills or *wind-motors in some form will again be in the ascendant, and that wind will do man’s mechanical work on land at least in proportion comparable to its present doing of work at sea.

1813.  T. Davis, Agric. Wilts, 265. *Wind Mows, cocks of a waggon-load or more, into which hay is sometimes put previous to ricking in catching weather.

1650.  Bulwer, Anthropomet. (1653), 274. *Wind-Musique doth not deform the Visage.

1661.  [see MUSIC sb. 6].

a. 1700.  Evelyn, Diary, 21 Dec. 1662. Instead of the … solemn wind musiq accompanying the organ, was introduced a concert of 24 violins.

1700.  J. Brome, Trav., 127. The Statues of two Men playing on Wind-Musick.

1795.  Life John Metcalf, 109. There being at that time no music in the army except Colonel Howard’s, (the Old Buffs) and which being wind music were unaccustomed to country dances.

1661.  [T. Powell], Hum. Industry, 34. *Wind-muskets that some have devised to shoot bullets withal.

1833.  Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 234. To do all the *wind-pinnings (filling in the angle between the wall-plate and the roof).

1863.  Fitzroy, Weather Bk., 173. Taking, with Dové, north-east and south-west (true) as the *‘wind-poles.’

1899.  Committee’s Appeal for Hexham Abbey, 6. The old internal *wind porch, now used as a press in the vestry.

1660.  Boyle, New Exp. Phys.-Mech., Proem 6. The *Wind-Pump … is so contriv’d, that to evacuate the Vessel there is requir’d the … labor of two … men.

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Mark iv. 37. *Wind-ræs … michelo windes.

c. 1205.  Lay., 9244. Mid þan wind-ræsen al heo gunnen to-reosen.

1622.  N. Riding Rec. (N.S.), II. 4. Every Towen or lorshipp that of reighte haith any *winderake for there goodes in the forrest.

1860.  Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, xii. § 551. There are two *‘wind-roads,’ crossing this sea.

1902.  Daily Chron., 10 Sept., 5/7. Being in the wind road we got a little air.

c. 1635.  Capt. N. Boteler, Dial. Sea Services (1685), 136. To Ride *Wind-rode, is when the Wind hath more power over her in her Riding than the Tide hath.

1635.  Voy. Foxe & James to N. W. (Hakl. Soc.), II. 379. The Ship came not to wind-road.

1794.  Rigging & Seamanship, II. 302. The ship becomes windroad.

1841.  R. H. Dana, Seaman’s Man., 89. To get under Way wind-rode, with a Weather Tide; that is, a tide setting to windward.

1903.  A. H. Henderson, in Cornhill Mag., Oct., 574. Peering over the canvas *wind-screen of the bridge [of a yacht].

1905.  Westm. Gaz., 18 Nov., 9/1. With its hood and wind-screen, [the car] is well fitted for the use of the general practitioner.

1908.  Animal Managem., 150. Wind screens may be … made of turf walls or tall, wattled hurdles, placed to windward of the lines.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 123. The other method of bringing the *wind-shaft and sails into a position proper for receiving the impression of the wind.

c. 1400.  Sege Jerus. (E.E.T.S.), 40. Suþ went to þe walle on þe *wynde syde, & alle abrod on þe burwe blewen þe powder.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, XVII. xxviii. I. 547. Some content themselves to perfume Vines onely with the smoke of this composition, so as it bee done on the wind-side, that it may carie the fume directly to them.

1727.  Bradley’s Family Dict., s.v. Blight, To provide large Heaps of Weeds, Chaff, and other combustible Matter on the Wind-side of their Orchards.

1656.  Beale, Heref. Orchards (1657), 47. The clay-land binds the tree faster from *wind-strokes, the sandy-land hasteneth the growth more.

1890.  Billings, Med. Dict., Wind-stroke, acute spinal paralysis in the horse.

1913.  D. Bray, Life-Hist. Brāhūī, v. 109. Men well stricken in years often suffer from wind-stroke…. And a woman sometimes quits her bed after childbirth lamed by the wind in one leg.

1852.  Seidel, Organ, 27. The *Wind swell. Here the trunk is provided with a valve of velvet.

a. 1625.  Manwayring, Sea-man’s Dict. (1644), s.v., Any thing that holds wird aloft, which may prejudice the ship saileing or riding, is said to be *wind-taught (as too much rigging high roapes, and the like;) Also when we ride in any great stresse, we bring our yards alongst ships, strike downe our top-masts and the like: because they hold wind taught, that is, they hold wind stiffely.

1674.  Petty, Disc. Dupl. Proportion, 31. Where the Masts, Yards, Sails, and Rigging are great, the Wind-taught of the Ship will correspond, and will require proportionable Cables.

1704.  J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. s.v., Too much Rigging,… or any thing catching or holding Wind aloft, is said to hold a Ship Wind-taught.

1826.  Sporting Mag. (U.S.), XVII. 199. The *wind-throstle or whindle … travels out of the North with the fel-fare.

1668.  Charleton, Onomast., 83. Turdus Illas … the *Wind-Thrush.

1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey), s.v. Thrush, Wind-Thrush, a Bird so call’d because it comes in high Winds into England, in the beginning of Winter.

1873.  T. Cargill, Strains Bridge Girders, 186. Roofs, if they be thoroughly well secured by *wind-ties.

1858.  J. Baron, Scudamore Organs, 61. The essential parts of an organ are a set of keys,… a bellows, a *windtrunk, a windchest with its soundboard, and the pipes.

1725.  Bradley’s Fam. Dict., s.v. Wind-mil, That it may, swivel-like, turn any way, as you turn your *wind Vanes.

1858.  Froude, Hist. Eng., IV. xx. 228. The imbecile Arran could play no part but that of the wind-vane marking the changes in the air-currents.

c. 1450.  in Archæologia (1902), LVIII. 302. The firste *wynde went closid in ston.

1562.  [see SUSPIRAL 2].

1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., *Wind-way (Mining), a passage for air.

1876.  Hiles, Catech. Organ, iv. (1878), 24. Between the language and the lips [of an organ-pipe] is a narrow slit or wind-way for the current of air to pass from the foot to the body of the pipe.

1887.  Daily News, 28 Sept., 3/1. They crossed behind the Volunteer, leaving the water very choppy for the Thistle and stopping her wind-way, materially lessening her speed.

1867.  A. Barry, Sir C. Barry, iii. 76. A horizontal *wind-wheel for raising water.

1908.  Hardy, Dynasts, III. III. iii. A fire is lit Near to the Thonberg wind-wheel.

1581.  Mulcaster, Positions, x. (1888), 56. The exercise of the voice … aideth … and comforteth the lunges in his *windworke.