windy

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

  • IPA(key): /ˈwɪndi/
  • Audio (General Australian):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪndi

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[1]:
      “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[2]:
      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[3]:
      […] 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
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Translations to be checked

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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