Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see separate entry.

a cocked hat.

1886

E. Dowden Shelley 21: His face [...] surmounted by the venerable ‘wind-cutter’, or cocked-hat [OED].

see separate entries.

the anus.

1604

Shakespeare Othello III i: clo.: Are these [...] wind-instruments? 1st muse: Ay, marry, are they, sir. clo.: O! thereby hangs a tail. 1st muse: Whereby hangs a tale, sir? clo.: Marry, sir, by many a wind-instrument that I know.

see separate entries.

see separate entries.

(W.I., Bdos/Trin.) no food, nothing to eat.

1979

cited in Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage (1996) 606/2: wind-pies [...] wind-sandwich [...] wind-pies and air sausages [...] wind-pies and nutten-chops [...] wind-sandwich and breeze-pie. Nothing whatever to eat, no food in the house.

see air pudding under air n.

see windbag n. (2)

(US black) a thin overcoat.

1971

(con. 1930s–50s) D. Wells Night People 118: Windsheet. Thin overcoat.

(US) a table napkin.

1911

Wash. Post 10 Dec. 4/5: The gentleman who is wearing an ‘ice’ [...] will be careful to tuck a ‘windshield’ in his collar to protect his ‘rag’ from stray drops of soup.

a garrotter.

1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.

1. a worn-out horse, fit only for slaughter [its heavy breathing].

1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 51: Working out whose horse had a cough, whose was a wind-sucker.
1863		Vetinarian 1 Apr. 251: Mr. Hardy, of Grantham, a veterinary surgeon, examined the mare and passed her, and she was sent to the plaintiff’s stables, where it was discovered that she was a very bad ‘wind-sucker’.
1889		Scot. Law Rev. V 356: Mr. Russell warrnated that the colt was not a wind-sucker or crib-biter.
1893		Wallace’s Mthly 19 376/2: One other trick: The dealer wants to get rid of a wind-sucker or club-biter. He is brought into the sale-ring at the last moment.

2. (US) a braggart [the expulsion of wind, i.e. breath].

a.1639		Beaumont & Fletcher Wit Without Money IV i: Husbands, you puppies, husbands for Whores and Bawdes, away with you wind-suckers; doe not looke bigge, nor prate.
1672		J. Phillips Maronides (1678) V 71: For shame then let not this wind-sucker / At our disgrace thus sneer and snicker.
1922		Appleton Post-Crescent (WI) 15 May 9/1: Flapper Dictionary wind-sucker – A braggart.

extremely long sideburns, e.g. the paies as worn by an orthodox Jew, occas. also other facial hair.

1903		‘Hugh McHugh’ I Need The Money 65: With the store clothes, and the wig [...] and the neat little group of wind-teasers on the chin.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 195: Wind Tormentors. Whiskers, especially those of luxuriant, heavy growth.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 769: Boy, what wind tormentors that old Abie had! They fell halfway down his chest.

(Aus.) a sailboarder.

1987		K. Lette Girls’ Night Out 191: ‘Aren’t you a wind wanker, mate?’ Bruce interrogated, hostile as buggery.
1992		Tracks Oct. 46: When it is two foot dribble and a screaming trade wind is playing host to 50,000 wind wankers you might start to feel left out of it.

(US black) to run away.

1966

H.L. Foster ‘Cant of the Disadvantaged, Socially Maladjusted, Secondary School Child’ in Urban Education Jan. 108: catching the wind: leaving, running away.

1. to leave, to depart quickly.

1965		H. Williamson Hustler 164: I saw these two mens comin’ behind me walkin’ pretty fast. [...] I crossed the street to get in the wind.
1975		Sepe & Telano Cop Team 134: They had lost him again. ‘He must have got into the wind,’ Telano said.
1977		N.C. Heard When Shadows Fall 175: He walked to J.B. and handcuffed him to the heavy leg of the sofa. ‘This is one Haines you won’t be getting the wind on, creep,’ he said.
1995		Twinz ‘Good Times’ 🎵 Me and my homies are in the wind.
2007		N. McCall Them (2008) 14: ‘I’ma stay home and chill.’ ‘Suit yourself. Me, I gotta get in the wind.’.
2019		S.M. Jones Lives Laid Away [ebook] ‘That’s when his buddies [...] natch him up and they’re in the wind’.

2. as imper., go away!

a.1955		‘Good-Doing Wheeler’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 77: So get in the wind, go where you been.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 157: You go one week to come up with fifteen packs. That’s it [...] Now, get in the wind.

1. to become nervous.

1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 31/1: I don’t want to say anything more about it just now, for fear he gets ‘wind.’.
1917		‘Sapper’ No Man’s Land 226: No need to get your wind up.
1918		L.N. Smith Lingo of No Man’s Land 39: GETTING WIND UP Tommy says the Germans are ‘getting wind up’ when they are so nervous and jumpy in expectation of an attack that they begin firing without a good cause—at shadows and imaginary objects.
1921		F. Grose A Rough Y.M. Bloke 54: He had the ‘wind up’ them properly.
1927		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 20 Aug. 11/2: Eventually the model ‘S.M. Herald’ leader will read like this [...] Put it all over Dud the Chair ’e did, fair the doos. [...] No wonder Dud ’ad the wind vertical.
1929		K.S. Prichard Coonardoo 60: Sam got the wind up about there being no water and the camel’s clearing out.
1932		(con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 166: ‘They think you’ve got the wind up for nothing’.
1939		J. Campbell Babe is Wise 313: There was just a chance o’ Mac being put off, or he thought there was — got the wind up, you know, coz other firms was chucking ’em out right an’ left.
1945		A. Christie Sparkling Cyanide (1955) 171: She’s got the wind up badly, poor kid.
1945		N. Marsh Died in the Wool (1963) 233: Albie had the wind up [...] I’d say he’d taken the whisky.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 223: I had the wind up, at first, that the war would frigg things up.
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 25: I had the wind up about which jail I’d land up in.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 216: Don’t get the wind up, Donny, [...] Nobody’s going to hurt you.
1959		J. Gosling Ghost Squad 166: I had the wind up in no uncertain manner but it was still one of the funniest sights I’ve ever seen.
1966		B. Reckord Skyvers III ii: jordan: The ’ead’s comin’. Wot for? colman: Nothin’. Ain’t you got the wind up.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 123: He’s gonna have the wind up his ass.
2001		OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 wind up (get the... ) n. to become afraid.

2. to act aggressively; to make others nervous.

1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 158: What’s the matter? Has the Colonel been getting wind up about the practice tomorrow?
1980		Guardian 11 Apr. 16/1: American golfers get the wind up when the wind gets up [...] seeing the weather as a challenge.

to get rid of someone.

1931		D. Runyon ‘The Lily of St. Pierre’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 133: His doll, Big Marge, gives him the wind for a rich Cuban.
1942		W. Pegler George Spelvin Chats 44: He thought of giving Hattie the wind back in 1931 when he was out of a job himself.

(US black) to be extremely annoyed.

1972

D. Claerbaut Black Jargon in White America 87: wind in his jaws adj. angry; extremely upset.

to leave.

1972

E. Sanders Family 187: He planned to stay [...] maybe four weeks then hit the wind.

1. drunk.

1830		N. Ames Mariner’s Sketches 116: Stragglers [...] who are too frequently so much ‘in the wind’ as to be incapable of defence.
1848		J.C. Cooper Jack Tier (1852) I 10: You have an uncommonly sober crew, Capt. Spike [...] During the whole time I have been with them, I have not seen a man among them the least in the wind.

2. freed from prison; absenting oneself, on the run.

1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 11: I’m gonna angle my ass off as soon as I get in the wind.
1997		G. Sikes 8 Ball Chicks (1998) 75: I’d rather have shot that kid’s ass than know he’s in the wind, running with a gun in his hand.
2005		G. Pelecanos Drama City 269: Far as he knew, no one was looking for him. Since he’d left the Hill, he’d been in the wind.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] ‘Where is he?’ ‘I don’t know [...] I’m scared to fucking death. He’s in the wind’.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Broken’ in Broken 22: ‘They’re in the wind [...] Probably running from Oscar’.
2021		Breen & Conlon Hitmen 254: They [i.e. arrestees] would have been joined by Howe, except he was in the wind.
2023		M. Herron Secret Hours 386: ‘I’d be on the carpet, he’d be in the wind, and you’d be writing a eulogy’.

3. of money, being used for a transaction, rather than held in a wallet, bank etc.

1973

D. Goines Street Players 202: I’ve got five thousand dollars out in the wind.

4. see three sheets in the wind phr.

goodbye.

1972

J. Maryland ‘Shoe-shine on 63rd’ in Kochman Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out 214: The players all started heading for the door, stating, ‘Peace,’ ‘Later,’ ‘Hat time,’ ‘I’m in the wind,’ etc.

(US black) to leave.

1966		H.L. Foster ‘Cant of the Disadvantaged, Socially Maladjusted, Secondary School Child’ in Urban Education Jan. 108: put in the wind: to run.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 3: Whupped ’im upside the head ’fore he could put it in the wind.
1985		Eble Campus Sl. Oct.

1. to worry, to frighten.

1914		B.J. Brookes diary 6 Nov. 🌐 A party of the Royal Irish Regiment attempted (and fairly well succeeded) in putting the wind up our fellows.
1918		Kia Ora Coo-ee 15 May 16/3: That Orderly Officer [...] had only been trying to ‘put the wind up’ us, so that we would know what to do when we did get into enemy territory. [Ibid.] 15 June 13/3: I was still feeling sore about the matter when the ’plane started to heel over and move in circles. This manœuvre put the wind up me.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 22: She has always put the wind up me to a frightful extent.
1927		(con. WW1) P. MacDonald Patrol 92: ‘Put the gust up me [...] Sod ’im!’.
1936		‘Banjo’ Paterson Shearer’s Colt 128: He put the wind up Charley Stone by going out to a big lunch with the boozehound of the Squatters’ Financial Company.
1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 63: Jerry knows that sooner or later it’ll come to cold steel. And ’e’s scared. It pokes the wind up ’im.
1941		F. Sargeson ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 170: Some places [...] a dog would bark and put the wind up me properly.
1950		A. Buckeridge Jennings Goes To School 218: Wilkie’ll think I pinched it to put the wind up everyone.
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 19: Those two galahs really put the wind up me!
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 99: Put the wind up decent folks.
1993		K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 13: Having ‘put the wind up him good and proper’, her moment of triumph was shortlived.
1997		C. McPherson The Weir 62: I got the wind put up me that night.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 237: Its more like Uncle puttin the wind up me.
2018		G. Disher Kill Shot [ebook] ‘Did he ask questions? Tell you anything? [...] ‘To be frank, he put the wind up me’.
2021		C. Hammer Opal Country 444: ‘Let’s put the wind up the bastard’.

2. to render angry.

1936

T. ‘O’Reilly Tiger of the Legion 147: I hate to see animals hurt, and even a bad dog-fight will put the wind up me.

3. to become scared.

1976

P. Theroux Family Arsenal 220: You want me to put the wind up.

(Aus.) to move very fast.

1967

K. Tennant Tell Morning This 439: ‘Christ! if it was me getting out of this dump, I’d be splitting the wid’.