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take the wind out of one's sails

wind
T t

Transcription

    • US Pronunciation
    • US IPA
    • [noun wind, Literary wahynd; verb wind]
    • /noun wɪnd, Literary waɪnd; verb wɪnd/
    • US Pronunciation
    • US IPA
    • [noun wind, Literary wahynd; verb wind]
    • /noun wɪnd, Literary waɪnd; verb wɪnd/

Definitions of take the wind out of one's sails words

  • noun take the wind out of one's sails air in natural motion, as that moving horizontally at any velocity along the earth's surface: A gentle wind blew through the valley. High winds were forecast. 1
  • noun take the wind out of one's sails a gale; storm; hurricane. 1
  • noun take the wind out of one's sails any stream of air, as that produced by a bellows or fan. 1
  • noun take the wind out of one's sails air that is blown or forced to produce a musical sound in singing or playing an instrument. 1
  • noun take the wind out of one's sails wind instrument. 1
  • noun take the wind out of one's sails wind instruments collectively. 1
See all 33 definitions of take the wind out of one's sails

Information block about the term

Origin of take the wind out of one's sails

First appearance:

before 900
One of the 4% oldest English words
before 900; Middle English (noun), Old English; cognate with Dutch, German Wind, Old Norse vindr, Gothic winds, Latin ventus

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Take the wind out of one's sails

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Full grammatical hierarchy of Take the wind out of one's sails

take the wind out of one's sails popularity

A common word. It’s meaning is known to most children of preschool age. About 100% of English native speakers know the meaning and use the word.
Most Europeans know this English word. The frequency of it’s usage is somewhere between "mom" and "screwdriver".

See also

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