windy

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”). The “frightened” sense probably derives from the phrase have the wind up.

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɪn.di/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪndi
• Hyphenation: wind‧y

windy (comparative windier, superlative windiest)

1. Accompanied by wind.

   Alternative form: (Internet slang, deliberate misspelling) wimdy

   Synonyms: blowy, blustery, breezy

   Antonyms: calm, windless

   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.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:verbose

   • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 21:

     I am not come hither to contend with the King of Witchland in windy railing, but to match my strength against his, sinew against sinew.

5. (informal) Flatulent.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus: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.

windy (plural windies)

1. (colloquial) A fart.

From wind (“to curve, bend”) +‎ -y.

• IPA^(key): /ˈwaɪndi/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

windy (comparative windier, superlative windiest)

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

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