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windy

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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English

Etymology 1

From Middle English windy, from Old English windiġ (windy), from Proto-Germanic *windigaz (windy), equivalent to wind + -y. Cognate with Saterland Frisian wiendich (windy), West Frisian winich (windy), Dutch winderig (windy), German Low German windig (windy), German windig (windy), Swedish vindig (windy), Icelandic vindugur (windy).

Pronunciation

Adjective

windy (comparative windier, superlative windiest)

  1. Accompanied by wind.
    It was a long and windy night.
    • 2017 June 15, Hiufu Wong, “11 extreme weather records”, in CNN:
      “Everybody is interested in extremes – the hottest, the wettest, the windiest – so creating a database of professionally verified records is useful in that fact alone,” says Randall Cerveny from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
    • 2019 October 24, Jack Guy, “Humid, windy days worse for pain, says new study”, in CNN:
      Humid, windy days with low pressure make pain worse in those with long-term health conditions, according to new research.
    • 2021 August 12, Katie Hunt, “Mammoths were the original ‘ice road truckers,’ traveling vast distances across the Arctic”, in CNN:
      [] Higher windier locations can some times provide a relief from these insects during the growing season.”
  2. Unsheltered and open to the wind.
    They shagged in a windy bus shelter.
  3. Empty and lacking substance.
    They made windy promises they would not keep.
  4. Long-winded; orally verbose.
  5. (informal) Flatulent.
    The Tex-Mex meal had made them somewhat windy.
  6. (slang) Nervous, frightened.
    • 1995, Pat Barker, The Ghost Road, Penguin, published 2014, The Regeneration Trilogy, page 848:
      The thing is he’s not windy, he’s a perfectly good soldier, no more than reasonably afraid of rifle and machine-gun bullets, shells, grenades.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Noun

windy (plural windies)

  1. (colloquial) A fart.
Translations

Etymology 2

From wind (to curve, bend) + -y.

Pronunciation

Adjective

windy (comparative windier, superlative windiest)

  1. (of a path etc) Having many bends; winding, twisting or tortuous.
Usage notes

Due to ambiguity with the homograph described above, the word winding is generally preferred in print.

Derived terms
Translations
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