Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

3 VERB When you wind a mechanical device, for example a watch or a clock, you turn a knob, key, or handle on it several times in order to make it operate. □ [V n] I still hadn't wound my watch so I didn't know the time. ● PHRASAL VERB Wind up means the same as wind . □ [V P n] I wound up the watch and listened to it tick. □ [V n P ] Frances took the tiny music box from her trunk and wound it up.

4 VERB To wind a tape or film back or forward means to make it move towards its starting or ending position. □ [V n adv] Now wind the film forward to what will happen if the next government doesn't solve the problem.

▸  wind down

1 PHRASAL VERB When you wind down something such as the window of a car, you make it move downwards by turning a handle. □ [V P n] Glass motioned to him to wind down the window. □ [V n P ] If a stranger stops you, just wind the window down a fraction.

2 PHRASAL VERB If you wind down , you relax after doing something that has made you feel tired or tense. [INFORMAL ] □ [V P ] I regularly have a drink to wind down.

3 PHRASAL VERB If someone winds down a business or activity, they gradually reduce the amount of work that is done or the number of people that are involved, usually before closing or stopping it completely. □ [V P n] Foreign aid workers have already begun winding down their operation. □ [V P ] In 1991 the Ada plant began to wind down. [Also V n P ]

▸  wind up

1 PHRASAL VERB When you wind up an activity, you finish it or stop doing it. □ [V P n] The President is about to wind up his visit to Somalia. [Also V n P ]

2 PHRASAL VERB When someone winds up a business or other organization, they stop running it and close it down completely. [BUSINESS ] □ [V P n] There was no alternative but to wind up the business. [Also V n P ]

3 PHRASAL VERB If you wind up in a particular place, situation, or state, you are in it at the end of a series of actions, events, or experiences, even though you did not originally intend to be. □ [V P prep/adv] He could wind up in gaol. □ [V P v-ing] Little did I know that I would actually wind up being on the staff. □ [V P adj/n] Both partners of the marriage wound up unhappy.

4 PHRASAL VERB When you wind up something such as the window of a car, you make it move upwards by turning a handle. □ [V n P ] He started winding the window up but I grabbed the door and opened it.

5 PHRASAL VERB If you wind someone up , you deliberately say things which annoy them. [BRIT , INFORMAL ] □ [V n P ] This woman really wound me up. She kept talking over me. [Also V P n]

6 PHRASAL VERB If you wind someone up , you say untrue things in order to trick them. [BRIT , INFORMAL ] □ [V n P ] You're joking. Come on, you're winding me up. [Also V P n]

7 → see also wind ➋ 3 , wind-up , wound up SYNONYMS wind NOUN ➊1

breeze:…a cool summer breeze.

gust:A gust of wind drove down the valley.

draught:On a cold day there can be quite a draught from the letterbox.

wind|bag /w I ndbæg/ (windbags ) N‑COUNT If you call someone a windbag , you are saying in a fairly rude way that you think they talk a great deal in a boring way. [INFORMAL , DISAPPROVAL ]

wind-blown /w I nd bloʊn/ also windblown

1 ADJ You can use wind-blown to indicate that something has been blown from one place to another by the wind. □  …the wind-blown sand which forms the 60 ft dunes.

2 ADJ If something such as someone's hair is wind-blown , it is untidy because it has been blown about by the wind.

wind|break /w I ndbre I k/ (windbreaks ) N‑COUNT A windbreak is something such as a line of trees or a fence which gives protection against the wind.