windle
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windle¹
- /ˈwɪndəl/
Rhymes with -ɪndəl
Where it comes from
Perhaps from wind.
noun windles
- The redwing. The modus operandi somewhat recalls the stratagem of Gideon, for the birds—chiefly thrushes, blackbirds, fieldfares, redwings (locally "windles"), and starlings (smaller birds being disregarded)—terrified by the noise, and dazed by the lantern glare, suffered themselves to be taken by the hand, or,
windle²
- /ˈwɪndəl/
Rhymes with -ɪndəl
Where it comes from
From Middle English windle, windel, from Old English windel (“basket”), from Proto-West Germanic *windil, from Proto-Germanic *windilaz (“wrap; diaper; plaitwork; basket”), equivalent to wind + -le. Related to Old English windan (“to wind, twist”).
noun windles
- A basket.
- An old English measure of corn, half a bushel. In the Derby household book of 1561, wheat, malt, and oats are sold by the quarter and the windle, in which the quarter clearly contained sixteen windles, and must have been a wholly different measure from that which we are familiar.
windle³
- /ˈwɪndəl/
Rhymes with -ɪndəl
Where it comes from
From Middle English windel, shortened from Old English windelstrēaw (“windlestraw, coarse grass or reed”).
noun windles
- Any dried-out grass leaf or stalk in a field. We rode by the side of a barren mountain, which was covered to an extent of three miles with quartz, and produced little or no herbage, except a species of wiry or windle-grass, which was much parched by the sun.
- Also any of several species of grasses that leave such leaves or stalks, such as dog-tail grass, Plantago lanceolata. That he has given a fair character of the Crested dog's tail, I have proved by repeated experiments; in the North of Ireland, we know its panicles but two well, under the name of windle straws.
- Bent grass (Agrostis spp.).
windle⁴
- /ˈwɪndəl/
Rhymes with -ɪndəl
Where it comes from
From Middle English windel, from Old Norse vindla (“to wind up”) or Middle Dutch windelen (“to turn around, spin”). Related to Old English windelstān (“tower with a winding staircase”), bewindla (“a hedge or border”), hringġewindla (“a sphere”).
noun windles
- A windlass. A car-brake shalt provided with a tapering windle connected at its largest portion with a brake-chain which is thickest at the end nearest the windle, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.
- A reel for winding something into a bundle, such as winding string or yarn into skeins or straw into bundles. She comes—she comes—God's sake speak her fair and canny, or we will have a ravelled hasp on the yarn-windles.
verb windles · windling · windled
- To bind straw into bundles.
- To wind yarn.
- To whirl around in the air; (of snow) to drift.
Windle⁵
proper noun Windles · Windell
- A surname.
Talk about this word "windle." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/windle. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. windle. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/windle "windle." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/windle.Cite this
@misc{windle_2026,
title = {windle},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/windle},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
