Word.ws English Dictionary

wind-up

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Canada/ˈwaɪndˌʌp/

wind-up noun: the end or conclusion of something.

Noun

wind-up (plural wind-ups)

  1. The end or conclusion of something.
    • Everyone is invited to our end-of-term wind-up party.
    • The wind-up is, that the father becomes bankrupt; the wife and daughters town-traders; the sons Greeks, Fancy-swells, Conveyancers (pickpockets), or Cracksmen (house breakers), and the New Drop is the last drop they ever take.1822, A Morning in Cork-Street: or, Raising the wind, page 102
  2. The punch line of a joke or comedy routine.
  3. (UK) A humorous attempt to fool somebody; a practical joke in which the victim is encouraged to believe something untrue.
    • "Is this a wind-up, or what?" "No, no, it's true. He can really do it."1999, Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? (film)
  4. The phase of making a pitch where the pitcher moves his or her arm backwards before throwing the ball.
    • He's into his wind-up. Here comes the pitch. Strike on the inside corner!1975: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (movie)
  5. A circular hand gesture, supposed to represent the winding on of film, used to signal to a performer to finish quickly.

Adjective

wind-up (not comparable)

  1. Of a machine, requiring winding up in order to function.
    • Maybe you could get a wind-up toy to distract him.1997, Daria (TV, episode 1.07)

wind-up meaning in Tamil

wind-up in Tamil

முடிவுறுத்தல்

Forms of wind-up

pluralwind-ups
alternative formwindup

Origin of wind-up

Deverbal from wind up.

Words formed from wind-up

Phrases with wind-up

Questions about wind-up

What does wind-up mean?
Wind-up means the end or conclusion of something.
What is wind-up in Tamil?
Wind-up in Tamil is முடிவுறுத்தல். See Wind-up meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is wind-up?
Wind-up can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce wind-up?
Wind-up is pronounced /ˈwaɪndˌʌp/ (Canada).
What is the plural of wind-up?
The plural of wind-up is wind-ups.

Words near wind-up in the dictionary

  1. wind-stream
  2. wind-streams
  3. wind-sucker
  4. wind-suckers
  5. wind-swept
  6. wind-up
  7. wind-up merchant
  8. wind-up merchants
  9. wind-up radio
  10. wind-up radios
  11. wind-up toy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wind-up (page history and authors); wind-up (Tamil Wiktionary) (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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Cite this entry: “wind-up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wind-up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.