sb. (Formerly also as two words.) [f. WIND sb.1 + MILL sb.1; cf. MHG. wintmül, G. windmühle, LG., Du. windmolen, and F. moulin à vent (from 13th c.).]
1. A mill the machinery of which is driven by the wind acting upon sails, used (chiefly in flat districts) for grinding corn, pumping water, etc. The older and most characteristic European form consists of a conical mill-house with a dome or ‘cap’ carrying (usually) four sails; the modern American type consists of a disk of sails mounted on a framework of girders, and is used chiefly for pumping or sawing.
The sails (SAIL sb.1 5) are turned by the force of the wind around an axis or wind-shaft, usually nearly horizontal and having some contrivance (now often automatic) for turning it in any direction to enable the sails to catch the wind.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 11383. Þe king of alemaine was in a windmulle inome.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, III. 190. Y saugh him carien a wyndmelle Vnder a walsh note shale.
a. 1400. Gloss, in Rel. Ant., I. 7. Ventagile, a wyndmylne.
c. 1450. Godstow Reg., 63. His winde-mille þat stondit vppon hoge wiþ-oute þe towne of doninton.
15[?]. Ladye Bessie (Percy Soc.), 77. He went up unto a wynde mylne, And stoode upon a hyll soe hye.
1546. Yks. Chantry Surv. (Surtees, 1894), 11. The rente of a wynde mylle there, xxs.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. i. 162. I had rather liue With Cheese and Garlick in a Windmill.
1630. R. Johnson’s Kingd. & Commw., 644. At no time there bloweth so much wind as will move a windmill.
1759. Smeaton, in Phil. Trans., LI. 159. Windmills, such as the different species for raising water for drainage, &c.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), II. 21. If we look upon the sails of a windmill moving, at a distance, they appear to go very slow.
1841. T. A. Trollope, Western France, I. xii. 212. Behind the town is a high bluff … entirely covered with windmills.
1885. Law Rep., 10 App. Cas. 411. Some spars and canvas were sacrificed in order to erect a windmill to assist in working the pumps.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 599/2. American windmills generally have the sails arranged in an annulus or disk.
2. A figure of a windmill; a sign or character resembling this, as a cross or asterisk. Also attrib. Now rare or Obs.
1402. Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 57. I know not an a from the wynd-mylne.
1581. Campion, in Confer., II. (1583), I ij. A note is a marke that may be remoued, that teacheth to turne … by this crosse, or by that windmill or marke.
1898. Morris, Austral Engl., Windmill J.P., expression formerly used in New South Wales for any J.P. who was ill-educated and supposed to sign his name with a cross x.
3. a. A model of a windmill. b. A toy consisting of a cross-shaped piece of card or other light substance fixed at the end of a stick so as to revolve like the sails of a windmill when moved through the air.
1557. Will of E. Pettinger (Somerset Ho.). I giue … to my vncle … my wyndemylle whych hangeth in my hall.
1598. Florio, Ventaréllo,… a piece of a card or paper cut like a crosse, and with a pin put in at the end of a sticke, which running against the wind doth twirle about, our English children call it a wind-mill.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Virolet.
1836. [Hooton], Bilberry Thurland, I. v. 113. Last week, or it might be the week before, I sold windmills and lambs for children.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., xiv. I so conciliated Peepy’s affections by buying him a windmill and two flour-sacks, that [etc.].
4. fig. and allusively. † a. A fanciful notion, a crotchet; a visionary scheme or project. Obs.
1612. Webster, White Devil, II. ii. 12. Others that raise up their confederate spirits, ’Bout wind-mils.
1622. Massinger & Dekker, Virg. Mart., II. ii. Thy head is full of Windemils.
1639. J. Clarke, Parœm., 158. He hath wind-milnes in ’s head.
1648. Jenkyn, Blind Guide, iii. 39. You have a windmill upon your pate.
1728. Earl of Ailesbury, Mem. (1890), 576. Frize, who had a windmill in her head like her husband.
1749. Lavington, Enthus. Meth. & Papists (1820), 18. The wind-mill is indeed in all their heads.
b. In allusions to the story of Don Quixote (see QUIXOTE) tilting at windmills under the delusion that they were giants.
1644. Cleveland, Char. Lond. Diurnall, 3. The Quixotes of this Age fight with the Wind-mills of their owne Heads.
1646. Lluelyn, Men-Miracles, etc., 84.
| No doubty Don Quixote, like those that fight, | |
| With Warlike Wind mill, and then rise up Knight. |
a. 1656. R. Cox, Actæon & Diana, 30. The Barber … vows to make you the windmill, whilest he plays Don Quixot against you furiously.
a. 1658. [see QUIXOTE].
1782. Miss Burney, Cecilia, IX. iii. Our giants may indeed be only windmills.
1869. Le Fanu, Wyvern Myst., III. 105. What have I to do wi’ other folk’s windmills?
1894. Farrar, Christ, 84, note. Dr. Edersheim … is again—so far as I am concerned—fighting a windmill.
c. To fling (throw) one’s cap over the windmill [= F. jeter son bonnet par-dessus les moulins]: to act recklessly and defiantly, fly in the face of convention.
1835. Mrs. Lynn Linton, Chr. Kirkland, xiii. A wild outward kind of young fellow, who had enjoyed his youth too freely and flung his cap too far over the windmill.
1920. W. J. Locke, House of Baltazar, xxii. You’re going to make a bolt with Godfrey and throw your cap over the windmills.
1923. F. H. Kitchin, Divers. Dawson, 305. Throwing their caps over the windmill under the stimulus of war patriotism.
† 5. fig. (from WIND sb.1 10). A cause of ‘wind.’
1616. T. Draxe, Bibl. Scholast., 80. A full stomacke is a winde-mill.
6. attrib. and Comb. (See also 2.) a. attrib., as windmill country, hill, sail; moving like windmill-sails, as w. arms; having a radiating form like windmill-sails, as † w. battle (see quot.). b. Comb., as windmill-like, -studded adjs.; windmill-cap, the upper story of a windmill when made movable so as to turn the sails to the wind (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1875); windmill-grass, an Australian grass, Chloris truncata, with long spreading flower-spikes; windmill plant = TELEGRAPH-plant; windmill-pump, a pump worked by a windmill, a wind-pump; † windmillward, = MILLWARD.
1891. Kipling, City Dreadf. Nt., 88. The *windmill arms and the angry eyes fall, for the Sahib is making the report of the death.
1639. Markham, Soldier’s Gram., II. 65. This … forme of Battaile following, which is called by the name of the *Wind-Mill Battaile,… standeth every way ready prepared to entertaine fight.
1887. Hissey, Holiday on Road, 83. Approaching Mayfield, we entered upon the heart of a *windmill country.
1889. Maiden, Useful Pl. Australia, 80. Chloris truncata, *Windmill Grass.
1440. Extr. Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 395. In quodam ludo de ly Haliblude ludendo apud ly *Wyndmylhill.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 275. A little windemill hill heard by.
1577. Leigh, Surv., I ij b. The most notable knowen markes,… as … Marelepittes,… Brokes,… Windmill hilles, [etc.].
1587. Engl. Misc. (Surtees, 1890), 91. The oulde walles of the toune from the castell-bridge alongeste the *wyndmylle hole.
1848. trans. Hoffmeister’s Trav. Ceylon, etc. vii. 277. Their *wind-mill-like wings.
1891. C. Roberts, Adrift Amer., 149. A kind of patent *windmill-pump.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., I. (1879), 71. Sometimes they [sc. ruffs] are suffered to hang ouer their shoulders, like *windmil sayles fluttering in the winde.
1759. Smeaton, in Phil. Trans., LI. 138. In trying experiments on windmill-sails, the wind itself is too uncertain to answer the purpose.
1864. Kingsley, Lett. from Biarritz, in Life, xxi. (1879), II. 169. The vulture [in the courtyard] has been … expanding concave wings as big as windmill sails.
1845. Ford, Handbk. Spain, II. 585/2. Corrales under its *windmill-studded hill.
1314–5. Cal. Rotul. Chartarum (1803), 241. Will’us *Wyndmilward.
† c. quasi-adj. (fig.): Variable, flighty. Obs.
a. 1644. Quarles, New Distemper, Wks. (Grosart), I. 151/1. Your windmill fancies.
1657. J. Sergeant, Schism Dispach’t, 134. Your vertible and wind-mill uncertainty.
Hence † Windmill v., intr. to turn or change direction like a windmill (obs. nonce-wd.); Windmiller (cf. G. windmüller), the keeper of a windmill; Windmilly a., abounding in windmills.
1694. N. H., Ladies Dict., 230/2. Not many days had passed ere this extraordinary Passion *Wind-mill’d about to the contrary point of the Compass.
a. 1530. J. Heywood, Wether (Brandl), 507. I am a *wynd myller as many mo be.
1654. Vilvain, Theorem. Theol., iii. 113. Like Wind-millers, they make every wind serv their turns.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4170/4. John Childs,… a Wind-Miller by Trade.
1865. W. White, East. Eng., II. iii. 40. It ‘blew hard enough to winner taters,’ as a windmiller in Warwickshire once said to a friend of mine.
1863. Dickens, Uncomm. Trav., xxvii. A *windmilly country this.
