subs. (old literary: now colloquial or vulgar).—1. Breath, lung-power; and 2. (pugilists’) the stomach: i.e., ‘below the belt,’ a forbidden point of attack in legitimate boxing. Hence WINDER = anything that deprives one of the power of breathing; TO NAP A WINDER = (1) to be hung, and (2) get a SETTLER (q.v.).
c. 1362. York Plays, XXIX. 258. Petrus. Woman, thy wordis and thy WYNDE thou not waste. Ibid., XXXV. 355. [A man after hard work says that] me wantis WYNDE.
c. 1469. Coventry Mysteries, 226. My WYNDE is stoppyd, gon is my brethe.
[?]. Political Poems [FURNIVALL], 79.
| Ye noye me soore in wastyng al this WYNDE | |
| For I haue seide y-noughe, as semethe me. |
1525–37. [ELLIS, Letters.] My WIND was short.
1596. SHAKESPEARE, Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 5. 104. If my WIND were but long enough to say my prayers, I would repent. Ibid. (1598), 2 Henry IV., i. 2. Is not your voice broken, your WIND short?
1853. DICKENS, Bleak House, II. x. He … pats and pokes him in divers parts of his body, but particularly in that part which the science of self-defence would call his WIND.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, ‘A Hundred Stretches Hence,’ 124. Some rubbed to whit had NAPPED A WINDER.
1860. O. W. HOLMES, The Professor at the Breakfast-Table, ii. 49. How they spar for WIND, instead of hitting from the shoulder!
PHRASES. TO TAKE WIND = to be known, to transpire; TO SAIL NEAR (or CLOSE TO) THE WIND = (1) to take every risk, and (2) to border on malpractice; TO RAISE THE WIND = to borrow (or procure) money: usually by shift, FLYING A KITE (q.v.), or bills of accommodation; TO GO DOWN THE WIND = to decay; TO SLIP ONE’S WIND = to die; TO TAKE THE WIND = to gain an advantage; TO HAVE ONE IN THE WIND = to understand a person; ‘Is the WIND in that door?’ = ‘Is that so?’; WIND ENOUGH TO LAST A DUTCHMAN A WEEK = enough and to spare; BETWEEN WIND AND WATER = in a vulnerable spot: spec. (venery) TO GET SHOT BETWEEN WIND AND WATER = to be seduced, to receive (or get) a man; DOWN THE WIND = verging towards ruin or decay; THE WAY THE WIND BLOWS = the position of a matter, the state of affairs; THREE (more or less) SHEETS IN THE WIND (see SHEETS); IN THE WIND = (1) astir, afoot; and (2) a matter of surmise or suspicion; TO CARRY THE WIND = to be high-spirited or mettlesome: properly of horses tossing the nose as high as the ears; TO HAVE THE WIND OF = to keep strict watch; TOO NEAR THE WIND = mean, stingy (nautical).
1546. HEYWOOD, Proverbs, 502. He KNEW WHICH WAY THE WINDE BLEW.
1564. UDALL, The Apophthegmes of Erasmus, 318. Why (quoth Pompeius) IS THE WYNDE IN THIS DOORE, that except Lucullus were a man geuen to delices, Pompeius might in no wise continue aliue?
1614. GREENE, A Looking-Glass for London and England [DYCE], p. 121. Thras. … I am come to entreat you to stand my friend, and to favour me with a longer time, and I will make you sufficient consideration. Usurer. IS THE WIND IN THAT DOOR?
1593. SHAKESPEARE, Titus Andronicus, iv. 2. My son and I will HAVE THE WIND OF you.
1609. JONSON, The Case is Altered, iii. 3. Go to, there’s SOMETHING IN THE WIND, I see.
1620. FLETCHER, Philaster, iv. 1. SHOT him BETWEEN WIND AND WATER.
d. 1663. BRAMHALL, Works, iii. 507. THE WIND IS GOTTEN INTO THE OTHER DOOR since we were prosecuted and decried as Pelagians and enemies of grace.
1680. ELIZABETH CARY, The History of the Life, Reign, and Death of Edward II., 11. He had hit his desires in the Master-vein, and struck his former Jealousie BETWEEN WIND AND WATER, so that it sunk in the instant.
1742–4. R. NORTH, The Life of Lord Guildford, i. 101. If the lords had sat in the morning, the design to be executed at one o’clock might have TAKEN WIND.
1809. MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 55. Ordonnez had not GOT WIND OF our affair.
1810. CRABBE, The Borough, Letter 3. The Curate.
| An angry dealer, vulgar, rich and proud, | |
| Thinks of his bill, and, passing, raps aloud; | |
| The elder daughter meekly makes him way— | |
| ‘I want my money, and I cannot stay; | |
| My mill is stopt; what, Miss! I cannot grind, | |
| Go tell your Father he must RAISE THE WIND.’ |
1812. H. and J. SMITH, Rejected Addresses, 136.
| So when to RAISE THE WIND some lawyer tries, | |
| Mysterious skins of parchment meet our eyes. |
1821. COMBE, Dr. Syntax, III. iii.
| Fortune at present is unkind, | |
| And we, dear Sir, must RAISE THE WIND. |
1830. MARRYAT, The King’s Own, x. ‘My master, who always looked out for a rainy day, had collected these rings as a sort of stand-by, to RAISE THE WIND when required.’
1836. R. H. DANA, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, xxxiii. This was an immense sail, and held WIND ENOUGH TO LAST A DUTCHMAN A WEEK—hove to.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends (Aunt Fanny), (ed. 1862), 324.
| And turn up their noses at one who could find | |
| No decenter method of ‘RAISING THE WIND?’ |
1838. DICKENS, Oliver Twist, xiii. Why, what the blazes is IN THE WIND now!
1853. Notes and Queries, 1 S. vi. 486. Seamen who whistle at sea TO RAISE THE WIND.
1859. F. W. FARRAR, Julian Home, iv. Miss Sprong … seeing HOW THE WIND LAY, had tried to drop little malicious hints.
1869. WHYTE-MELVILLE, M. or N., 124. Dick … began to surmise that this young lady had been RAISING THE WIND, as he called it, and to wonder for what mysterious purpose she could want so large a sum.
1874. BEETON, The Siliad, 32.
| And though it’s SAILING very NEAR THE WIND, | |
| Monarch’s prerogative can loose or bind. |
1885. The Field, 17 Oct. Indications are not wanting to show WHICH WAY THE WIND BLOWS.
1892. Cassell’s Saturday Journal, 5 Oct., 43. 2. Half-a-dozen coats are of no immediate use to a man who is content with one, unless it be to RAISE THE WIND, and the same remark applies to boots.
1902. Pall Mall Gazette, 10 April, 2, 2. Even our sardonic Chancellor of the Exchequer must have been moved to a grim smile at some of the extraordinary expedients for RAISING THE WIND with which he has been credited.
TO WIND ONE’S COTTON, verb. phr. (common).—To give trouble.
