Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WIN'CO-PIPE, n.

The vulgar name of a little flower, that, when it opens in the morning, bodes a fair day. Bacon.

WIND, n. [Sax. wind; D. and G. wind; Sw. and Dan. vind; W. gwynt; L. ventus; It. vento; Sp. viento; Fr. vent. This word accords with L. venio, ventum, and the Teutonic wendam, Eng. went. The primary sense is to move, flow, rush or drive along.]

1. Air in motion with any degree of velocity, indefinitely; a current of air. When the air moves moderately, we call it a light wind, or a breeze; when with more velocity, we call it a fresh breeze; and when with violence, we call it a gale, storm or tempest. The word gale is used by the poets for a moderate breeze, but seamen use it as equivalent to storm. Winds are denominated from the point of compass from which they blow; as, a north wind; an east wind; a south wind; a west wind; a southwest wind, &c.
2. The four winds, the cardinal points of the heavens. Come from the four winds, O breath, sad breathe upon these slain. – Ezek. xxxvii. This sense of the word seems to have had its origin with the Orientals, as it was the practice of the Hebrews to give to each of the four cardinal points the name of wind.
3. Direction of the wind from other points of the compass than the cardinal, or any point of compass; as, a compass of eight winds. [Obs.] – Heylin.
4. Breath; power of respiration. If my wind were but long enough to say my prayers, I would repent. – Shak.
5. Air in motion from any force or action; as, the wind of a cannon ball; the wind of a bellows.
6. Breath modulated by the organs or by an instrument. Their instruments were various in their kind, / Some for the bow, and some for breathing wind. – Dryden.
7. Air impregnated with scent. A pack of dog-fish had him in the wind. – Shak.
8. Any thing insignificant or light as wind. Think not with wind or airy threats to awe. – Milton.
9. Flatulence; air generated in the stomach and bowels; as, to be troubled with wind.
10. The name given to a disease of sheep, in which the intestines are distended with air, or rather affected with a violent inflammation. It occurs immediately after shearing. Down the wind, decaying; declining; in a state of decay; as, he went down the wind. [Not used.] – L'Estrange. To take or have the wind, to gain or have the advantage. – Bacon. To take wind, or to get wind, to be divulged; to become public. The story got wind, or took wind. In the wind's eye, in seamen's language, toward the direct point from which the wind blows. Between wind and water, denoting that part of a ship's side or bottom which is frequently brought above water by the rolling of the ship, or fluctuation of the water's surface. To carry the wind, in the manege, is when a horse tosses his nose as high as his ears. Constant or perennial wind, a wind that blows constantly from one point of the compass; as the trade wind of the tropics. Shifting, variable or erratic winds, are such as are changeable, now blowing from one point and now from another, and then ceasing altogether. Stated or periodical wind, a wind that constantly returns at a certain time, and blows steadily from one point for a certain time. Such are the monsoons in India, and land and sea breezes. Trade wind, a wind that blows constantly from one point, such as the tropical wind in the Atlantic. [In poetry, wind often rhymes with find; but the common pronunciation is with i short, and so let it continue.]

WIND, v.i.

1. To turn; to change. So swift your judgments turn and wind. – Dryden.
2. To turn around something; as, vines wind around a pole.
3. To have a circular direction; as, winding stairs.
4. To crook; to bend. The road winds in various places.
5. To move round; as, a hare pursued turns and winds. To wind out, to be extricated; to escape. Long lab'ring underneath, ere they could wind / Out of such prison. – Milton.

WIND, v.t. [pret. and pp. wound; Sax. windan; G. and D. winden; from wind, or the same root.]

1. To blow; to sound by blowing or inflation. Wind the shrill horn. – Pope.
2. To turn; to move, or cause to turn. To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus. – Shell.
3. To turn round some fixed object; to bind, or to form into a ball or coil by turning; as, to wind thread on a spool; wind thread into a ball; to wind a rope into a coil.
4. To introduce by insinuation. The child winds himself into my affections. They have little arts and dexterities to wind in such things into discourse. – Gov. of the Tongue.
5. To change; to vary. Were our legislature vested in the prince, he might wind and turn our constitution at his pleasure. – Addison.
6. To entwist; to infold; to encircle. – Shak.
7. [With i short, as in win.] To nose; to perceive or to follow by the scent; as, hounds wind an animal.
8. To ventilate; to expose to the wind; to winnow. To wind off, [with i long,] to unwind. To wind out, to extricate. – Clarendon. To wind up, to bring to a small compass, as a ball of thread. – Locke. #2. To bring to a conclusion or settlement; as, to wind one's affairs. #3. To put in a state of renovated or continued motion. Fate seemed to wind him up for fourscore years. – Dryden. To wind up a clock, is to wind the cord by which the weights are suspended, round an axis or pin. To wind up a watch, is to wind the spring round its axis or pin. #2. To raise by degrees. Thus they wound up his temper to a pitch. – Atterbury. #3. To straiten, as a string; to put in tune. Wind up the slacken'd strings of thy lute. – Kell. #4. To put in order for regular action. – Shak.

WIND'AGE, n. [Sp. viento, wind, windage.]

The difference between the diameter of a piece and that of a ball or shell. – Cyc.

WIND'BOUND, a. [wind and bound.]

Prevented from sailing by a contrary wind. – Mar. Dict.

WIND'-DRI-ED, a.

Dried in the wind.

WIND'-DROP-SY, n. [wind and dropsy.]

A swelling of the belly from wind in the intestines; tympanites. – Coxe.

WIND'-EGG, n. [wind and egg.]

An addle egg.

WIND-ER, n.

One who winds.

WIND'ER, v.t.

To fan; to clean grain with a fan. [Local.]

WIND'ER-MEB, n.

A bird of the genus Lams, or gull-kind. – Cyc.

WIND'FALL, n. [wind and fall.]

1. Fruit blown off the tree by wind.
2. An unexpected legacy.

WIND'-FALL-EN, a.

Blown down by the wind. – Drayton.

WIND'-FLOW-ER, n. [wind and fower.]

A plant, the anemone.

WIND'-FUR-NACE, n. [wind and furnace.]

A furnace in which the air is supplied by an artificial current, as from a bellows.

WIND-GAGE, n. [wind and gage.]

An instrument for ascertaining the velocity and force of wind. – Cyc.

WIND'-GALL, n. [wind and gall.]

A soft tumor on the fetlock joints of a horse.

WIND'-GUN, n.

An air gun; a gun discharged by the force of compressed air.

WIND'-HATCH, n. [wind and hatch.]

In mining, the opening or place where the ore is taken out of the earth. – Cyc.

WIND'-HOV-ER, n. [wind and hover.]

A species of hawk; called also the stannel but more usually the kestrel. – Cyc.

WIND'I-NESS, n. [from windy.]

1. The state of being windy or tempestuous; as, the windiness of the weather or season.
2. Fullness of wind; flatulence. – Harvey.
3. Tendency to generate wind; as, the windiness of vegetables.
4. Tumor; puffiness. The swelling windiness of much knowledge. – Brerewood.

WIND-ING, n.

1. A turn or turning; a bend; flexure; meander; as, the windings of a road or stream.
2. A call by the boatswain's whistle.

WIND-ING, ppr.

1. Turning; binding about; bending.
2. adj. Bending; twisting from a direct line or an even surface.

WIND-ING-EN-GINE, n.

An engine employed in mining, to draw up buckets from a deep pit. – Cyc.