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Definition 2024


get_wind_of

get wind of

English

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Verb

get wind of

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To hear about; to learn of, especially with respect to facts intended to have been kept confidential or secret.
    • 1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. 51:
      [T]he secret was still a secret, except that you had got wind of it.
    • 1917, Sax Rohmer, The Hand of Fu-Manchu, ch. 7:
      "It's no easy matter," said Inspector Weymouth, "to patrol the vicinity of John Ki's Joy-Shop without their getting wind of it."
    • 2001, Ginny Parker, "Dating Game," Time, 4 June:
      He asks that I don't identify his name and profession, saying he doesn't want colleagues to get wind of his habits.

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