whistle down the wind

verb

To set (someone) free, allowing them to go their own way and do what they choose.

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Meanings

verbwhistle down the wind (third-person singular simple present whistles down the wind, present participle whistling down the wind, simple past and past participle whistled down the wind)

present singular third person whistles down the wind · participle present whistling down the wind · participle past whistled down the wind · past whistled down the wind

  1. transitiveTo set (someone) free, allowing them to go their own way and do what they choose.

    Can he do nothing for his Burns but make a Gauger of him; lionise him, bedinner him, for a foolish while: then whistle him down the wind, to desperation and bitter death?

    1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “chapter VI, The Landed”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book IV (Horoscope)
  2. transitiveTo badmouth someone or something; to disparage.

    It is very easy for you to whistle down the wind an eligible partner. There are far too many of us who can only wish we might have had the choice!

    2013, April Kihlstrom, An Outrageous Proposal
  3. To talk to no purpose.
Cite this entry
APA

whistle down the wind. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whistle%20down%20the%20wind

MLA

“whistle down the wind.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whistle%20down%20the%20wind. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “whistle down the wind,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whistle%20down%20the%20wind.

Source: whistle down the wind on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.