WIND UP

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does wind up mean? 

• WIND UP (verb)
  The verb WIND UP has 4 senses:

1. finally be or do something

2. give a preliminary swing to the arm pitching

3. stimulate sexually

4. coil the spring of (some mechanical device) by turning a stem

  Familiarity information: WIND UP used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WIND UP (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Finally be or do something

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

end up; fetch up; finish; finish up; land up; wind up

Context example:

he wound up being unemployed and living at home again

Hypernyms (to "wind up" is one way to...):

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s VERB-ing

Derivation:

windup (a concluding action)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Give a preliminary swing to the arm pitching

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "wind up" is one way to...):

swing (move in a curve or arc, usually with the intent of hitting)

Domain category:

ball; baseball; baseball game (a ball game played with a bat and ball between two teams of nine players; teams take turns at bat trying to score runs)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 3

Meaning:

Stimulate sexually

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

arouse; excite; sex; turn on; wind up

Context example:

This movie usually arouses the male audience

Hypernyms (to "wind up" is one way to...):

excite; shake; shake up; stimulate; stir (stir the feelings, emotions, or peace of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "wind up"):

tempt (try to seduce)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The performance is likely to wind up Sue

Sense 4

Meaning:

Coil the spring of (some mechanical device) by turning a stem

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

wind; wind up

Context example:

wind your watch

Hypernyms (to "wind up" is one way to...):

fasten; tighten (make tight or tighter)

"Wind up" entails doing...:

turn (change orientation or direction, also in the abstract sense)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "wind up"):

rewind (wind (up) again)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

Often things going on in the outside world that you are not part of—or don’t even know about—come to your doorstep and wind up affecting you directly.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

How did these massive orbs form, and how did they wind up so shockingly close to their stars?

(Investigating the Mystery of Migrating 'Hot Jupiters', NASA)

And yet he would always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever have accepted such a situation.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If I don’t get it by Monday, I shall be in your papa’s Bench, wailed the little man, and as the footman led him out we could hear him, amidst shouts of laughter, still protesting that he would wind up in papa’s Bench.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They lead from the town up to the church, there are hundreds of them—I do not know how many—and they wind up in a delicate curve; the slope is so gentle that a horse could easily walk up and down them.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Having counted our funds, and reduced to order a great mass of unintentional confusion in the first place, and of wilful confusion and falsification in the second, we take it to be clear that Mr. Wickfield might now wind up his business, and his agency-trust, and exhibit no deficiency or defalcation whatever.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)