Winding

winding
    adj 1: marked by repeated turns and bends; "a tortuous road up
           the mountain"; "winding roads are full of surprises";
           "had to steer the car down a twisty track" [syn:
           {tortuous}, {twisting}, {twisty}, {winding},
           {voluminous}]
    2: of a path e.g.; "meandering streams"; "rambling forest
       paths"; "the river followed its wandering course"; "a winding
       country road" [syn: {meandering(a)}, {rambling},
       {wandering(a)}, {winding}]
    n 1: the act of winding or twisting; "he put the key in the old
         clock and gave it a good wind" [syn: {wind}, {winding},
         {twist}]
    

Wind \Wind\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Wound} (wound) (rarely
   {Winded}); p. pr. & vb. n. {Winding}.] [OE. winden, AS.
   windan; akin to OS. windan, D. & G. winden, OHG. wintan,
   Icel. & Sw. vinda, Dan. vinde, Goth. windan (in comp.). Cf.
   {Wander}, {Wend}.]
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   1. To turn completely, or with repeated turns; especially, to
      turn about something fixed; to cause to form convolutions
      about anything; to coil; to twine; to twist; to wreathe;
      as, to wind thread on a spool or into a ball.
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            Whether to wind
            The woodbine round this arbor.        --Milton.
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   2. To entwist; to infold; to encircle.
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            Sleep, and I will wind thee in arms.  --Shak.
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   3. To have complete control over; to turn and bend at one's
      pleasure; to vary or alter or will; to regulate; to
      govern. "To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus." --Shak.
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            In his terms so he would him wind.    --Chaucer.
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            Gifts blind the wise, and bribes do please
            And wind all other witnesses.         --Herrick.
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            Were our legislature vested in the prince, he might
            wind and turn our constitution at his pleasure.
                                                  --Addison.
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   4. To introduce by insinuation; to insinuate.
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            You have contrived . . . to wind
            Yourself into a power tyrannical.     --Shak.
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            Little arts and dexterities they have to wind in
            such things into discourse.           --Gov. of
                                                  Tongue.
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   5. To cover or surround with something coiled about; as, to
      wind a rope with twine.
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   {To wind off}, to unwind; to uncoil.

   {To wind out}, to extricate. [Obs.] --Clarendon.

   {To wind up}.
      (a) To coil into a ball or small compass, as a skein of
          thread; to coil completely.
      (b) To bring to a conclusion or settlement; as, to wind up
          one's affairs; to wind up an argument.
      (c) To put in a state of renewed or continued motion, as a
          clock, a watch, etc., by winding the spring, or that
          which carries the weight; hence, to prepare for
          continued movement or action; to put in order anew.
          "Fate seemed to wind him up for fourscore years."
          --Dryden. "Thus they wound up his temper to a pitch."
          --Atterbury.
      (d) To tighten (the strings) of a musical instrument, so
          as to tune it. "Wind up the slackened strings of thy
          lute." --Waller.
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Wind \Wind\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Winded}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Winding}.]
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   1. To expose to the wind; to winnow; to ventilate.
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   2. To perceive or follow by the scent; to scent; to nose; as,
      the hounds winded the game.
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   3.
      (a) To drive hard, or force to violent exertion, as a
          horse, so as to render scant of wind; to put out of
          breath.
      (b) To rest, as a horse, in order to allow the breath to
          be recovered; to breathe.
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   {To wind a ship} (Naut.), to turn it end for end, so that the
      wind strikes it on the opposite side.
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Wind \Wind\, v. t. [From {Wind}, moving air, but confused in
   sense and in conjugation with wind to turn.] [imp. & p. p.
   {Wound} (wound), R. {Winded}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Winding}.]
   To blow; to sound by blowing; esp., to sound with prolonged
   and mutually involved notes. "Hunters who wound their horns."
   --Pennant.
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         Ye vigorous swains, while youth ferments your blood, .
         . .
         Wind the shrill horn.                    --Pope.
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         That blast was winded by the king.       --Sir W.
                                                  Scott.
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Winding \Wind"ing\, a. [From {Wind} to twist.]
   Twisting from a direct line or an even surface; circuitous.
   --Keble.
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Winding \Wind"ing\, n.
   1. A turn or turning; a bend; a curve; flexure; meander; as,
      the windings of a road or stream.
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            To nurse the saplings tall, and curl the grove
            With ringlets quaint, and wanton windings wove.
                                                  --Milton.
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   2. The material, as wire or rope, wound or coiled about
      anything, or a single round or turn of the material; as
      (Elec.), a series winding, or one in which the armature
      coil, the field-magnet coil, and the external circuit form
      a continuous conductor; a shunt winding, or one of such a
      character that the armature current is divided, a portion
      of the current being led around the field-magnet coils.
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
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   {Winding engine}, an engine employed in mining to draw up
      buckets from a deep pit; a hoisting engine.

   {Winding sheet}, a sheet in which a corpse is wound or
      wrapped.

   {Winding tackle} (Naut.), a tackle consisting of a fixed
      triple block, and a double or triple movable block, used
      for hoisting heavy articles in or out of a vessel.
      --Totten.
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Winding \Wind"ing\, n. [From {Wind} to blow.] (Naut.)
   A call by the boatswain's whistle.
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91 Moby Thesaurus words for "winding":
      aberrant, aberrative, ambages, ambagious, anfractuosity,
      anfractuous, bending, circuitous, circuitousness, circumambages,
      circumbendibus, circumlocution, circumlocutory, circumvolution,
      convoluted, convolution, convolutional, crinkle, crinkling,
      crooked, curving, departing, desultory, deviant, deviating,
      deviative, deviatory, devious, digressive, discursive, errant,
      erratic, excursive, flexuose, flexuosity, flexuous, flexuousness,
      indirect, intorsion, involute, involuted, involution, involutional,
      labyrinthine, mazy, meander, meandering, meandrous, out-of-the-way,
      planetary, rambling, rivose, rivulation, rivulose, roundabout,
      roving, ruffled, serpentine, shifting, sinuate, sinuation, sinuose,
      sinuosity, sinuous, sinuousness, slinkiness, snakiness, snaky,
      stray, swerving, torsion, torsional, tortile, tortility,
      tortuosity, tortuous, tortuousness, turning, twisting, twisty,
      undirected, undulation, vagrant, veering, wandering, wave, waving,
      whorled, wreathlike, wreathy, zigzag