ETYM From Wind, moving air, but confused in sense and in conjugation with wind to turn.
ETYM as. wind; akin to os., OFries., Dutch, and German wind, Old High Germ. wint, Dan. and Swed. vind, Icel. vindr, Goth winds, w. gwynt, Latin ventus, Skr. vâta.
1. Air moving (sometimes with considerable force) from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure.
2. A tendency or force that influences events.
3. Breath.
4. Empty or insincere or exaggerated talk; SYN. winding, twist.
The lateral movement of the Earth's atmosphere from high-pressure areas (anticyclones) to low-pressure areas (depression). Its speed is measured using an anemometer or by studying its effects on, for example, trees by using the Beaufort Scale. Although modified by features such as land and water, there is a basic worldwide system of trade winds, westerlies, and polar easterlies.
A belt of low pressure (the doldrums) lies along the equator. The trade winds blow toward this from the horse latitudes (areas of high pressure at about 30ş N and 30ş S of the equator), blowing from the ne in the northern hemisphere, and from the se in the southern. The Westerlies (also from the horse latitudes) blow north of the equator from the sw and south of the equator from the Nw.
Cold winds blow outward from high-pressure areas at the poles. More local effects result from landmasses heating and cooling faster than the adjacent sea, producing onshore winds in the daytime and offshore winds at night.
The monsoon is a seasonal wind of S Asia, blowing from the sw in summer and bringing the rain on which crops depend. It blows from the ne in winter.
Famous or notorious warm winds include the chinook of the eastern Rocky Mountains, North America; the föhn of Europe’s Alpine valleys; the sirocco (Italy)/khamsin (Egypt)/sharav (Israel), spring winds that bring warm air from the Sahara and Arabian deserts across the Mediterranean; and the Santa Ana, a periodic warm wind from the inland deserts that strikes the California coast.
The dry northerly bise (Switzerland) and the mistral, which strikes the Mediterranean area of France, are unpleasantly cold winds.

Musical wind instruments especially as distinguished from strings and percussion.

River W central Wyoming, the upper course of Bighorn River.

(Irregular preterit, past participle: wound)
1. To extend in curves and turns; SYN. curve.
2. To wrap around, move around; SYN. wrap, roll.
3. Said of springs: to wind up.
4. To tighten the spring of (a mechanism); SYN. wind up.