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Wind up   /wɪnd əp/   Listen
verb
Wind  v. t.  (past & past part. wound, rarely winded; pres. part. winding)  
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. "Whether to wind The woodbine round this arbor."
2.
To entwist; to infold; to encircle. "Sleep, and I will wind thee in arms."
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." "In his terms so he would him wind." "Gifts blind the wise, and bribes do please And wind all other witnesses." "Were our legislature vested in the prince, he might wind and turn our constitution at his pleasure."
4.
To introduce by insinuation; to insinuate. "You have contrived... to wind Yourself into a power tyrannical." "Little arts and dexterities they have to wind in such things into discourse."
5.
To cover or surround with something coiled about; as, to wind a rope with twine.
To wind off, to unwind; to uncoil.
To wind out, to extricate. (Obs.)
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." "Thus they wound up his temper to a pitch."
(d)
To tighten (the strings) of a musical instrument, so as to tune it. "Wind up the slackened strings of thy lute."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Wind up" Quotes from Famous Books



... eighty-two years of age, and we find her laughing kindly at the anxiety of her sister and brother-in-law, who had heard of her climbing a ladder to wind up an old clock at Edgeworthtown. 'I am heartily obliged and delighted by your being such a goose and Richard such a gander,' she says 'as to be frightened out of your wits by my climbing a ladder to take off the top of the clock.' She had not felt that there ...
— A Book of Sibyls - Miss Barbauld, Miss Edgeworth, Mrs Opie, Miss Austen • Anne Thackeray (Mrs. Richmond Ritchie)

... get my idea; you see what a stunning dramatic surprise I would wind up with at the palace. It was all feasible, if I could only get hold of a slender piece of iron which I could shape into a lock-pick. I could then undo the lumbering padlocks with which our chains were fastened, whenever I might choose. But I never had any luck; ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... remotest details, the cornices and the carvings on the mantels, the kind of lumber of which the floors were to be made, the character of the timbers used, the carving of the capitals on the columns, the folding ladder that was used to wind up the clock over the doorway, the registers on the porch that recorded the direction in which the wind was coming, as moved by the weather-vane on the roof, the little elevator beside the fireplace ... and a thousand ...
— The Letters of Franklin K. Lane • Franklin K. Lane

... this, and much more historical matter of great interest, we must leave untouched, in order that we may wind up the record of our heroes' fortunes, or misfortunes; as the reader pleases to ...
— The Fugitives - The Tyrant Queen of Madagascar • R.M. Ballantyne

... and, in fact, he said that I could come and start right away whenever I pleased. So if this present exalted position of mine should fail me—for, as I said before, it may only be a temporary affair—why, slick I shall go away down to my particular friend the village blacksmith. Well, I must wind up; it's getting late. If ever you should be goaded by an uneasy conscience into writing me another letter, just let me know what is going on "on the banks of the coaly Tyne." Who is anybody, and where is he, etc. How is Bill Hawes, and give him my love for himself and family. Remember ...
— Canada for Gentlemen • James Seton Cockburn


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