a. Forms: 1 windiʓ, 1, 4 windi, 4–5 wyndi, 4–6 wyndy, 6 -die, -dye, windye, Sc. vyndie, wondie, 6–7 windie, 5– windy. [OE. windiʓ: see WIND sb.1 and -Y1. Cf. MHG. windie, G. windig.]
I. Literal and directly connected senses.
1. Consisting of wind; of or pertaining to (the) wind; having the command of the winds, as a heathen deity; indicating or suggesting wind.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Luke viii. 23. Ða com windi yst.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 313. The wyndy Storm began to skarse.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. viii. 48. As when a windy tempest bloweth hye.
a. 1593. Marlowe, Ovid’s Elegies, II. xvi. if stern Neptune’s windy power prevail.
1601. W. Basse, Three Past. Elegies, ii. (1893), 49. March, departed with his windy rage.
1617. J. Taylor (Water P.), Three Weekes Observ., Ep. Ded. All the watery, windy, earthly, and drinking, Deities.
1781. Cowper, Retirement, 432. While morning kindles with a windy red.
1873. Black, Pr. Thule, vi. 89. The sea that lay beyond … was of a windy green.
b. Produced, or actuated, by ‘wind’ or compressed air: said of music played on wind-instruments, or of a wind-instrument.
1841. Thackeray, Mem. Gormandising, Wks. 1900, XIII. 576. Music, whether windy or wiry.
1871. Longf., Wayside Inn, II. Cobbler of Hagenau, 45. Two angels carved in wood, That by the windy organ stood.
2. a. Of places, etc.: Full of, exposed to, blown upon or through by the wind.
Beowulf, 1358. Windiʓe næssas.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 322. Heora wyrtruma bið swa-swa windiʓe ysla.
1483. Cath. Angl., 419/1. Wyndy, ventosus, ventuosus.
1552. Huloet, Wyndy houses, or places.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 279. A coulde and wyndy clime.
1573. Satir. Poems Reform., xxxix. 350. Then wes he worsland our ane wondie swyre.
a. 1593. Marlowe & Nashe, Dido, I. i. Iuno … Made Hebe to direct her ayrie wheeles Into the windie countrie of the clowdes.
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 440. On this windie Sea of Land, the Fiend Walk’d up and down.
1833. Tennyson, May Queen, New Year’s Eve, v.
| The building rook ’ill caw from the windy tall elm-tree, | |
| And the tufted plover pipe along the fallow lea. |
1864. Lowell, Fireside Trav., 191. As he paces the windy deck.
1873. Longf., Wayside Inn, Monk of Casal-Maggiore, 84. My wretched lodging in a windy shed.
b. Of times, conditions, etc.: Characterized by wind, in which wind is frequent or prevalent; accompanied by (much) wind.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., III. 162. Windiʓ lengten & reniʓ sumer.
1431. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 2. Toward the ende of wyndy Februarie.
1579. J. Dee, Diary (Camden), 5. A moyst Marche and not wyndy.
1600. Surflet, Country Farm, V. viii. 671. Windie drouthes.
1685. in Verney Mem. (1904), II. 382. The wettest & the windiest day that I have seene.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, I. iii. It is a good Night, only a little rainy and windy.
1877. Huxley, Physiogr., 69. A windy day soon dries a wet pavement.
1904. W. E. Hodgson, Trout Fishing, 210. Meanwhile the rain goes on: no longer a slight windy spray.
c. Stirred by or wavering in the wind; moving so as to produce a wind or current of air.
c. 1450. trans. De Imitatione, I. vii. 47. Truste not ner leene not upon a windy rede.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. xii. 8. He … in his hand a windy fan did beare.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, VI. i. Hans quivered like a windy reed.
d. Situated towards the wind, windward: in phr. on the windy side of (fig.), so as not to be ‘scented’ and attacked by (cf. WIND sb.1 4), out of the reach of; away from, clear of.
In modern use echoing Shaks.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, II. i. 327. Pedro. Infaith Lady you haue a merry heart. Beatr. Yea my Lord I thanke it, poore foole it keepes on the windy side of Care. Ibid. (1601), Twel. N., III. iv. 181. Still you keepe o’th windie side of the Law: good.
1814. Scott, Wav., xii. He had just so much solidity as kept on the windy side of insanity.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., vii. 190. You cut off his resources; while you yourself keep on the windy side of assassination and murder.
3. Resembling the wind in storminess, quality of sound, swiftness, † changefulness, etc.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 388. Þeah þeos woruld wede, and windiʓe ehtnysse astyriʓe onʓean Cristes ʓelaðunge.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., II. pr. vii. (1868), 6. The amyable fortune maysthow sen alwey wyndy [MS. wyndynge; uentosam] and flowynge and euere mysknowynge of hir self.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 51. Then with her windie sighes, and golden heares, To fan, and blow them drie againe she seekes. Ibid. (1595), John, II. i. 477. Zeale now melted by the windie breath Of soft petitions.
1614. Purchas, Pilgrimage, VIII. v. (ed. 2), 756. The windy inconstancy of some of the companie.
1670. Dryden, Tyr. Love, II. i. A fire which every windy passion blows. Ibid. (1697), Æneis, XII. 1227. Indu’d with windy Wings to flit in Air.
1869. Mrs. Stowe, Oldtown Folks, xviii. (1870), 185. Polly gave a sudden windy dart from the room.
1883. Mrs. R. T. Ritchie, Bk. Sibyls, i. 5. The sweet windy drone of the organ swelled across the blossoms of the spring.
1915. J. Foster, in Chamb. Jrnl., 20 March, 245/1. Singing the lines in a high, windy voice.
4. a. Characterized by, arising from, or affected with ‘wind’ (WIND sb.1 10) in the stomach or bowels († or other parts): = FLATULENT 4.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 214. Wiþ þa þing þe windiʓne æþm on men wyrcen.
1563. T. Gale, Antidot., II. 30. In all cold and wyndye infirmities of the brayne.
1598. Marston, Pygmal., Sat., iv. 151. The windie-chollicke striu’d to haue some vent.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, viii. 185. Waterish and impure stomacks, by reason of windie crudities, wherewith they abound.
1799. Underwood, Dis. Childhood (ed. 4), I. 56. A costive and windy state of the bowels.
1879. St. George’s Hosp. Rep., IX. 348. After some windy eructations.
1889. in J. Hutchinson, Archives Surg. (1898), IX. 121. When well I am generally very windy.
b. Of food or drink: Causing or liable to cause ‘wind’: = FLATULENT 3.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. clxxxvi. (Add. MS. 27944). Newe muste is ful wyndy & smoky.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe (1541), 28. Nauews do not nouryshe so moche as rapes, but they be euen as wyndye.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 101. They … feede on bread very black, heauy and windy.
1698. Floyer, Asthma, ii. (1717), 25. When the Meat is crude, slimy, windy, acerb.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 494. the food be poor and windy.
II. Figurative senses. (See also 2 d, 3.)
5. Having ‘nothing in it,’ ‘airy,’ intangible, empty, unsubstantial, flimsy, vain, frivolous, trifling, worthless. (Often passing into other senses; see below.) Similarly of persons (rare).
1593. G. Harvey, New Lett., B 1. A wan, or windy Hope, is a notable breake-necke vnto itselfe.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, V. v. 165. There is nothing more vniust then to make men to liue by windy words & ayre.
1601. [see 6 a].
1650. Milton, Tenure of Kings (ed. 2), 47. Neither is Cæsar to make Warr as head of Christ’ndom, Protector of the Church, Defender of the Faith; these Titles being fals and Windie.
1693. Dryden, trans. Juvenal, X. 219. Exchanging solid Quiet, to obtain The Windy satisfaction of the Brain.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Windy-fellow, without Sense or Reason.
1830. Carlyle, Ess., Richter (1840), II. 340. What a hollow, windy vacuity of internal character this indicates.
1854. De Quincey, War, Wks. 1862, IV. 271. The windiest of levities.
1861. Thackeray, Four Georges, iv. (1862), 193. The Prince of Wales had some windy projects of encouraging literature, science, and the arts.
1877. Carlyle, in Mrs. Carlyle’s Lett., II. 116, note. Sending windy gossip to the newspapers.
6. a. Of speech or discourse, with various shades of meaning: Verbose, long-winded; violent, vehement; empty and high-sounding, inflated, bombastic; exaggerated, extravagant.
1382. Wyclif, Job xvi. 3. Whethir windi woordis [Vulg. verba ventosa] shul not han ende?
1590. J. Davidson, in Wodrow Soc. Misc. (1844), 517. Notwithstanding all the windye volumes written by them.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, V. iii. (1602), M 3 b. Tibullus. O. terrible, windy words! Gallus. A signe of a windy Braine.
1638. Junius, Paint. Ancients, 209. Windie and unmeasurable babbling was not long since brought to Athens out of Asia.
1660. Fuller, Mixt Contempl., xii. 19. By such windy particulars [he] did blow up his losses to the summe by him nominated.
1810. Coleridge, in Lit. Rem. (1839), IV. 379. To what purpose then this windy declamation about John Calvin?
1868. M. Pattison, Academ. Org., v. 245. A vague and windy rhetoric has supplanted solid acquisition.
1886. Illustr. Lond. News, 21 Aug., 194/1. The windy speeches made at public political meetings.
b. Of a speaker or writer: Full of talk or verbiage, talkative, loquacious, long-winded; violent or extravagant in utterance, ‘blustering’; bragging, boastful (cf. 7 b).
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XI. viii. 33. Quhidder, gif thi marcial deidis, as thai war ay, Into thy wyndy clattryng toung sal be.
1581. J. Hamilton, Cath. Traict., in Cath. Tract. (S.T.S.), 85. Ane vyndie sophist.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., IV. iv. 127. Windy Atturnies to their Clients Woes.
1648. Milton, Observ. Art. Peace, Wks. 1851, IV. 566. There will not need more words to this Windy Railer, convicted … of all those Crimes which he … charges upon others.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, ch. x. He is a windy body when he gets on his … stories.
1825. Brockett, N. C. Gloss., Windy, noisy, verbose, marvellous in narration.
1855. Motley, Dutch Rep., VI. ii. III. 450. The windy demagogue, who had filled half Flanders with his sound and fury.
7. a. That ‘puffs one up’; inducing pride or vain-glory. Obs. or merged in other senses.
1590. Nashe, Pasquils Apol., D 4 b. Let witte, which is windie obtaine the lesse, that Charitie which edifieth may gaine the more. [Cf. 1 Cor. viii. 1.]
1597. J. Payne, Royal Exch., 43. Puffed vp wth wynd[i]e knowledge.
[1693. Penn, Fruits Sol., II. cx. Wks. 1782, V. 181. We may be too easily swelled beyond our just proportion, by the windy compliments of men.
1784. Cowper, Task, V. 269. Inflated and astrut with self-conceit, He gulps the windy diet.]
b. ‘Puffed up’; inflated with, or showing, pride or vain conceit; vain-glorious, proud. Now Sc. colloq. (const. of).
1603. [see windy-headed in 9].
1625. T. Adams, Five Serm., Job xlii. 6 (1626), 10. After these blustring insolencies, and windie ostentations.
1695. Dryden, trans. Dufresnoy’s Art Paint., 63. He who has a windy Head, and flatters himself with the empty hope of deserving the praise of the common people.
1888. Barrie, Auld Licht Idylls, ix. I’m thinking he was windier of the cock.
8. Apt to ‘get the wind up’; ‘funky.’ slang.
1916. Hankey, Student in Arms, Ser. II. vii. (1917), 122. The anticipation of danger makes many men ‘windy.’
9. advb. and Comb., as windy-blowing, clear, -footed (cf. 3), -headed (cf. 6, 7 b), -looking adjs.
a. 1629. Goffe, Orestes, II. iii. With a North gale of *windy blowing sighs.
1899. T. S. Moore, Vinedresser, Duet, iii. Cloudless eyes, blue eyes so *windy clear.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XV. 163. The *windie-footed Dame.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1621), 8. The great … applause of the *windie headed people.
1879. Stevenson, Trav. Cevennes, 26. The sun had gone down into a *windy-looking mist.
