Wind n.
 1. Air naturally in motion with any degree of velocity; a current of air.
 Except wind stands as never it stood,
 It is an ill wind that turns none to good.   --Tusser.
    Winds were soft, and woods were green.   --Longfellow.
 2. Air artificially put in motion by any force or action; as, the wind of a cannon ball; the wind of a bellows.
 3. Breath modulated by the respiratory and vocal organs, or by an instrument.
 Their instruments were various in their kind,
 Some for the bow, and some for breathing wind.   --Dryden.
 4. Power of respiration; breath.
    If my wind were but long enough to say my prayers, I would repent.   --Shak.
 5. Air or gas generated in the stomach or bowels; flatulence; as, to be troubled with wind.
 6. Air impregnated with an odor or scent.
    A pack of dogfish had him in the wind.   --Swift.
 7. A direction from which the wind may blow; a point of the compass; especially, one of the cardinal points, which are often called the four winds.
    Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain.   --Ezek. xxxvii. 9.
 Note: ☞ This sense seems to have had its origin in the East. The Hebrews gave to each of the four cardinal points the name of wind.
 8. Far. A disease of sheep, in which the intestines are distended with air, or rather affected with a violent inflammation. It occurs immediately after shearing.
 9. Mere breath or talk; empty effort; idle words.
 Nor think thou with wind
 Of airy threats to awe.   --Milton.
 10. Zool. The dotterel.  [Prov. Eng.]
 11. Boxing The region of the pit of the stomach, where a blow may paralyze the diaphragm and cause temporary loss of breath or other injury; the mark. [Slang or Cant]
 Note: ☞ Wind is often used adjectively, or as the first part of compound words.
 All in the wind. Naut. See under All, n.
 Before the wind. Naut. See under Before.
 Between wind and water Naut., in that part of a ship's side or bottom which is frequently brought above water by the rolling of the ship, or fluctuation of the water's surface. Hence, colloquially, (as an injury to that part of a vessel, in an engagement, is particularly dangerous) the vulnerable part or point of anything.
 Cardinal winds. See under Cardinal, a.
 Down the wind. (a) In the direction of, and moving with, the wind; as, birds fly swiftly down the wind. (b) Decaying; declining; in a state of decay.  [Obs.]  “He went down the wind still.” --L'Estrange.
 In the wind's eye Naut., directly toward the point from which the wind blows.
 Three sheets in the wind, unsteady from drink. [Sailors' Slang]
 To be in the wind, to be suggested or expected; to be a matter of suspicion or surmise. [Colloq.]
 To carry the wind Man., to toss the nose as high as the ears, as a horse.
 To raise the wind, to procure money. [Colloq.]
 To take the wind or To have the wind, to gain or have the advantage. --Bacon.
 To take the wind out of one's sails, to cause one to stop, or lose way, as when a vessel intercepts the wind of another; to cause one to lose enthusiasm, or momentum in an activity. [Colloq.]
 To take wind, or To get wind, to be divulged; to become public; as, the story got wind, or took wind.
 Wind band Mus., a band of wind instruments; a military band; the wind instruments of an orchestra.
 Wind chest Mus., a chest or reservoir of wind in an organ.
 Wind dropsy. Med. (a) Tympanites. (b) Emphysema of the subcutaneous areolar tissue.
 Wind egg, an imperfect, unimpregnated, or addled egg.
 Wind furnace. See the Note under Furnace.
 Wind gauge. See under Gauge.
 Wind gun. Same as Air gun.
 Wind hatch Mining, the opening or place where the ore is taken out of the earth.
 Wind instrument Mus., an instrument of music sounded by means of wind, especially by means of the breath, as a flute, a clarinet, etc.
 Wind pump, a pump moved by a windmill.
 Wind rose, a table of the points of the compass, giving the states of the barometer, etc., connected with winds from the different directions.
 Wind sail. (a) Naut. A wide tube or funnel of canvas, used to convey a stream of air for ventilation into the lower compartments of a vessel. (b) The sail or vane of a windmill.
 Wind shake, a crack or incoherence in timber produced by violent winds while the timber was growing.
 Wind shock, a wind shake.
 Wind side, the side next the wind; the windward side. [R.] --Mrs. Browning.
 Wind rush Zool., the redwing. [Prov. Eng.]
 Wind wheel, a motor consisting of a wheel moved by wind.
 Wood wind Mus., the flutes and reed instruments of an orchestra, collectively.
 Gauge, n.
 1. A measure; a standard of measure; an instrument to determine dimensions, distance, or capacity; a standard.
    This plate must be a gauge to file your worm and groove to equal breadth by.   --Moxon.
    There is not in our hands any fixed gauge of minds.   --I. Taylor.
 2. Measure; dimensions; estimate.
    The gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, and contempt.   --Burke.
 3. Mach. & Manuf. Any instrument for ascertaining or regulating the dimensions or forms of things; a templet or template; as, a button maker's gauge.
 4. Physics Any instrument or apparatus for measuring the state of a phenomenon, or for ascertaining its numerical elements at any moment; -- usually applied to some particular instrument; as, a rain gauge; a steam gauge.
 5. Naut. (a) Relative positions of two or more vessels with reference to the wind; as, a vessel has the weather gauge of another when on the windward side of it, and the lee gauge when on the lee side of it. (b) The depth to which a vessel sinks in the water.
 6. The distance between the rails of a railway.
 Note: ☞ The standard gauge of railroads in most countries is four feet, eight and one half inches. Wide, or broad, gauge, in the United States, is six feet; in England, seven feet, and generally any gauge exceeding standard gauge. Any gauge less than standard gauge is now called narrow gauge. It varies from two feet to three feet six inches.
 7. Plastering The quantity of plaster of Paris used with common plaster to accelerate its setting.
 8. Building That part of a shingle, slate, or tile, which is exposed to the weather, when laid; also, one course of such shingles, slates, or tiles.
 Gauge of a carriage, car, etc., the distance between the wheels; -- ordinarily called the track.
 Gauge cock, a stop cock used as a try cock for ascertaining the height of the water level in a steam boiler.
 Gauge concussion Railroads, the jar caused by a car-wheel flange striking the edge of the rail.
 Gauge glass, a glass tube for a water gauge.
 Gauge lathe, an automatic lathe for turning a round object having an irregular profile, as a baluster or chair round, to a templet or gauge.
 Gauge point, the diameter of a cylinder whose altitude is one inch, and contents equal to that of a unit of a given measure; -- a term used in gauging casks, etc.
 Gauge rod, a graduated rod, for measuring the capacity of barrels, casks, etc.
 Gauge saw, a handsaw, with a gauge to regulate the depth of cut. --Knight.
 Gauge stuff, a stiff and compact plaster, used in making cornices, moldings, etc., by means of a templet.
 Gauge wheel, a wheel at the forward end of a plow beam, to determine the depth of the furrow.
 Joiner's gauge, an instrument used to strike a line parallel to the straight side of a board, etc.
 Printer's gauge, an instrument to regulate the length of the page.
 Rain gauge, an instrument for measuring the quantity of rain at any given place.
 Salt gauge, or Brine gauge, an instrument or contrivance for indicating the degree of saltness of water from its specific gravity, as in the boilers of ocean steamers.
 Sea gauge, an instrument for finding the depth of the sea.
 Siphon gauge, a glass siphon tube, partly filled with mercury, -- used to indicate pressure, as of steam, or the degree of rarefaction produced in the receiver of an air pump or other vacuum; a manometer.
 Sliding gauge. Mach. (a) A templet or pattern for gauging the commonly accepted dimensions or shape of certain parts in general use, as screws, railway-car axles, etc. (b) A gauge used only for testing other similar gauges, and preserved as a reference, to detect wear of the working gauges. (c) Railroads See Note under Gauge, n., 5.
 Star gauge Ordnance, an instrument for measuring the diameter of the bore of a cannon at any point of its length.
 Steam gauge, an instrument for measuring the pressure of steam, as in a boiler.
 Tide gauge, an instrument for determining the height of the tides.
 Vacuum gauge, a species of barometer for determining the relative elasticities of the vapor in the condenser of a steam engine and the air.
 Water gauge. (a) A contrivance for indicating the height of a water surface, as in a steam boiler; as by a gauge cock or glass. (b) The height of the water in the boiler.
 Wind gauge, an instrument for measuring the force of the wind on any given surface; an anemometer.
 Wire gauge, a gauge for determining the diameter of wire or the thickness of sheet metal; also, a standard of size. See under Wire.
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 wind gauge
      n : a gauge for recording the speed and direction of wind [syn:
          anemometer, wind gage]