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”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɪndi/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪndi

windy (comparative windier, superlative windiest)

1. Accompanied by wind.

   It was a long and windy night.

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.

• (accompanied by wind): blowy, blustery, breezy
• See also Thesaurus:verbose
• See also Thesaurus:flatulent

• (antonym(s) of “accompanied by wind”): calm, windless

windy (plural windies)

1. (colloquial) A fart.

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.