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WINDING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of winding or twisting
Example:
he put the key in the old clock and gave it a good wind
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("winding" is a kind of...):
rotary motion; rotation (the act of rotating as if on an axis)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Of a path e.g.
Example:
a winding country road
Synonyms:
meandering; rambling; wandering; winding
Classified under:
Similar:
indirect (not direct in spatial dimension; not leading by a straight line or course to a destination)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Marked by repeated turns and bends
Example:
had to steer the car down a twisty track
Synonyms:
tortuous; twisting; twisty; voluminous; winding
Classified under:
Similar:
crooked (having or marked by bends or angles; not straight or aligned)
III. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb wind
Context examples:
He insisted on carrying my traps along the passage, and then up a great winding stair, and along another great passage, on whose stone floor our steps rang heavily.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
He rose from the couch and left the chamber, while Alleyne could hear his feet sounding upon the winding stair.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
A form or shape that is folded in curved or tortuous windings.
(Convolution, NCI Thesaurus)
The din was on the causeway: a horse was coming; the windings of the lane yet hid it, but it approached.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Every disposition of the ground was good; and she looked on the whole scene, the river, the trees scattered on its banks and the winding of the valley, as far as she could trace it, with delight.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Miss Tilney drew back directly, and the heavy doors were closed upon the mortified Catherine, who, having seen, in a momentary glance beyond them, a narrower passage, more numerous openings, and symptoms of a winding staircase, believed herself at last within the reach of something worth her notice; and felt, as she unwillingly paced back the gallery, that she would rather be allowed to examine that end of the house than see all the finery of all the rest.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
When my mother is out of breath and rests herself in an elbow-chair, I watch her winding her bright curls round her fingers, and straitening her waist, and nobody knows better than I do that she likes to look so well, and is proud of being so pretty.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
She followed their steps along the bottom walk, and had just turned up into another, when the voice and the laugh of Miss Crawford once more caught her ear; the sound approached, and a few more windings brought them before her.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
For my own part, I had followed step by step the methods by which he had traced the various windings of this complex case, and, though I could not yet perceive the goal which we would reach, I understood clearly that Holmes expected this grotesque criminal to make an attempt upon the two remaining busts, one of which, I remembered, was at Chiswick.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Brissenden paused and ran an insolent eye over Martin's objective poverty, passing from the well-worn tie and the saw- edged collar to the shiny sleeves of the coat and on to the slight fray of one cuff, winding up and dwelling upon Martin's sunken cheeks.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
