1830. Marryat, 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. Dana, Before the Mast, xxxiii. This was an immense sail, and held wind enough to last a Dutchman a week—hove to.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. And turn up their noses at one who could find No decenter method of raising the wind?
1838. Dickens, Oliver Twist. 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. 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. Siliad, 32. And though it's sailing very near the wind, Monarch's prerogative can loose or bind.
1885. Field, 17 Oct. Indications are not wanting to show which way the wind blows.
1892. Cassell's Sat. Jl., 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 Gaz., 10 Ap., 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.
To wind up the clock, verb. phr. (venery).—To possess a woman: see Greens and Ride (see Tristram Shandy).
Wind-bag, subs. phr. (common).—An
incessant frothy talker: also
Gas-bag.
1889. Sportsman, 19 Jan. Hereafter he can have the newspapers to himself, and with that windbag Mitchell fill them with guff and nonsense, but I won't notice them.
Winding-sheet, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Grease
(or wax) drippings
guttering down the side
of a candle: deemed an omen
of death by the superstitious
(Grose): cf. Thief.
1859. Dickens, Tale of Two Cities, ii. 4. He . . . fell asleep . . . a long winding-sheet in the candle dripping down upon him.
Wind-jammer, subs. phr. (nautical).—1.
A sailing vessel: cf.
Smoke-stack.
1902. Athenæum, 8 Feb., 177. 1.
1903. Hyne, Filibusters, xviii. As a purser on a steamboat I had always held a fine contempt for sailor-men on wind-jammers.
2. (theatrical).—A player on a wind instrument.
Windmill J.P., phr. (obsolete
Australian).—Formerly used in
New South Wales for any J.P.
who was ill-educated and supposed
to sign his name with a cross (×).
Window, subs. (common).—1. In
pl. = the eyes, the peepers (q.v.).
2 (old).—A blank space in a writing.
d.1556. Cranmer, Works, ii. 249. I will therefore that you send unto me a collection thereof, and that your said collection have a window expedient to set what name I will therein.
Goldsmith's-window, subs. phr. (Australian mining).—A rich working in which the gold shows freely.
See Turn.
