Word.ws English Dictionary

took the wind out of someone's sails

took the wind out of someone's sails is the simple past of take the wind out of someone's sails.

Meaning of take the wind out of someone's sails

Verb

take the wind out of someone's sails (third-person singular simple present takes the wind out of someone's sails, present participle taking the wind out of someone's sails, simple past took the wind out of someone's sails, past participle taken the wind out of someone's sails)

  1. (idiomatic) To discourage someone greatly; to cause someone to lose hope or the will to continue; to thwart or minimize someone's ambitions.
    • "I tell you Van Bahr Lamb is a fool." […]
      But Polly […] completely took the wind out of her sails, by coolly remarking,— "I like fools."c. 1860, Louisa May Alcott, Aunt Kipp

Questions about took the wind out of someone's sails

What is took the wind out of someone's sails the simple past of?
Took the wind out of someone's sails is the simple past of take the wind out of someone's sails.

Words near took the wind out of someone's sails in the dictionary

  1. took the trouble
  2. took the veil
  3. took the weight off
  4. took the weight off one's feet
  5. took the wheel
  6. took the wind out of someone's sails
  7. took the words out of someone's mouth
  8. took the wrong turn at Albuquerque
  9. took time
  10. took time by the forelock
  11. took time off

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: took the wind out of someone's sails (page history and authors); take the wind out of someone's sails (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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