What does wind mean?

What does wind mean?. The world's largest and most trusted free online dictionary: definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more.

What does wind mean? - The Free Dictionary

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[n] air moving (sometimes with considerable force) from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure(trees bent under the fierce winds when there is no wind, row the radioactivity was being swept upwards by the air current and out into the atmosphere)[v] to move or cause to move in

wind

wind - The Free Dictionary

[n] air moving (sometimes with considerable force) from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure
(trees bent under the fierce winds when there is no wind, row the radioactivity was being swept upwards by the air current and out into the atmosphere)

[v] to move or cause to move in a sinuous, spiral, or circular course
(the river winds through the hills the path meanders through the vineyards sometimes, the gout wanders through the entire body)

[n] a tendency or force that influences events
(the winds of change)

[v] extend in curves and turns
(The road winds around the lake the path twisted through the forest)

[n] breath
(the collision knocked the wind out of him)

[v] arrange or or coil around
(roll your hair around your finger Twine the thread around the spool She wrapped her arms around the child)

[n] empty rhetoric or insincere or exaggerated talk
(that's a lot of wind don't give me any of that jazz)

[v] catch the scent of; get wind of
(The dog nosed out the drugs)

[n] an indication of potential opportunity
(he got a tip on the stock market a good lead for a job)

[v] coil the spring of (some mechanical device) by turning a stem
(wind your watch)

[n] a musical instrument in which the sound is produced by an enclosed column of air that is moved by the breath

[v] form into a wreath

[n] a reflex that expels intestinal gas through the anus

[v] raise or haul up with or as if with mechanical help
(hoist the bicycle onto the roof of the car)

[n] the act of winding or twisting
(he put the key in the old clock and gave it a good wind)

Other vocabulary

w, w-shaped, w. b. yeats, w. c. fields, w. c. handy, w. e. b. du bois, w. h. auden, w. h. hudson, w. k. kellogg, w. somerset maugham, w. v. quine, w. w. jacobs, w.c., w.m.d., wa, wabash, wabash river, wac, wackily, wacko, wacky, waco, wad, wadding, waddle, waddler, wade, wader, waders, wadi, i, i chronicles, i corinthians, i esdra, i john, i kings, i maccabees, i peter, i samuel, i thessalonians, i timothy, i-beam, i. a. richards, i. f. stone, i. m. pei, i.d., i.e., i.e.d., i.q., i.w.w., ia, iaa, iaea, iago, iamb, iambic, iambus, ian douglas smith, ian fleming, ian lancaster fleming

Dictionary

A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc. It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.

A broad distinction is made between general and specialized dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include words in specialist fields, rather than a complete range of words in the language. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whether lexicology and terminology are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed[citation needed] to be semasiological, mapping word to definition, while specialized dictionaries are supposed to be onomasiological, first identifying concepts and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types. There are other types of dictionaries that do not fit neatly into the above distinction, for instance bilingual (translation) dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms (thesauri), and rhyming dictionaries. The word dictionary (unqualified) is usually understood to refer to a general purpose monolingual dictionary.

There is also a contrast between prescriptive or descriptive dictionaries; the former reflect what is seen as correct use of the language while the latter reflect recorded actual use. Stylistic indications (e.g. "informal" or "vulgar") in many modern dictionaries are also considered by some to be less than objectively descriptive.

The first recorded dictionaries date back to Sumerian times around 2300 BCE, in the form of bilingual dictionaries, and the oldest surviving monolingual dictionaries are Chinese dictionaries c. 3rd century BCE. The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was A Table Alphabeticall, written in 1604, and monolingual dictionaries in other languages also began appearing in Europe at around this time. The systematic study of dictionaries as objects of scientific interest arose as a 20th-century enterprise, called lexicography, and largely initiated by Ladislav Zgusta. The birth of the new discipline was not without controversy, with the practical dictionary-makers being sometimes accused by others of having an "astonishing" lack of method and critical-self reflection.