Lesson
To 'wind up':
Pronunciation - not as in the wind & the weather,
but to wind up a clock (analogue/non-digital).
(Wind - to rhyme with blind.)
This is something I like to do - to tease & play on the words with someone. To create a moment of self awareness & mirth afterwards. Then it can be said to the person:
• "... you are so easy to wind up".
This is the slang version of the phrase.
Of course, if you push it too far, you can cause irritation & even angry.
This falls into the formal version of the phrase.
If you become too well known as this type of person, you would be called:
a - in a light humoured way - a wind up artist
b - in a not so light humoured way - a wind up merchant.
Another version - "to wind up" - to finally end up in a location, position or status.
• "I've toured all over Europe & finally wound up in Spain"
• "I didn't expect to wind up with this job, after all these years, with the same company".
Another version - wind something up - is a rapid closing or finishing that something.
• "I'm just about to wind up for the day"
= I'm finishing the work now & then I go.
Another version - wind something down - a slower way to finish that something.
• "I'm just winding down & then I'm off"
= I'm finishing the work, taking a rest & then I go, in a more casual way.
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Now - 'wind up':
Pronunciation - as in the wind & the weather.
'put the wind up' - to frighten, scare or just alarmed a person.
"you really put the wind up him, telling him that his boss was on the warpath about his unsatisfactory work."
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EXPLANATIONS of other words used here:
'analogue' = the mechanical version of clocks & other non-digital devices.
'mirth' = amusement with slight laughter
'toured' = a journey with many places visited along that route
'I'm off' = said as you are about to leave a place
'on the warpath' = taken from the American Indians - 'journey of killing' - to mean an angry or irritated state of mind in the extreme of normal behaviour, but not criminal behaviour. No killing :-)
Lastly - humoured = British spelling // humored = American spelling
Here endeth the lesson :-)
(old phrase used with a Shakespearean slant - "endeth")
----- My first lesson on E-Baby - hope you understand - if not - ask! :-) -----
