wend

Etymology

From Middle English wenden, from Old English wendan (“to turn, change, translate”), from Proto-West Germanic *wandijan, from Proto-Germanic *wandijaną (“to turn”), causative of *windaną (“to wind”), from Proto-Indo-European *wendʰ- (“to turn, wind, braid”). Cognate with Dutch wenden (“to turn”), German wenden (“to turn, reverse”), Danish vende (“to turn”), Norwegian Bokmål vende (“to turn”), Norwegian Nynorsk venda (“to turn”), Swedish vända (“to turn, turn over, veer, direct”), Icelandic venda (“to wend, turn, change”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wandjan, “to cause to turn”). Related to wind (Etymology 2).

verb

1. (transitive, obsolete) To turn; change, to adapt.
2. (transitive) To direct (one's way or course); pursue one's way; proceed upon some course or way.
   We wended our weary way westward.
   Like most original jurisdiction water cases, Mississippi v. Tennessee has taken a few years to wend its way to Supreme Court oral argument, and that argument will be keyed to the parties’ objections to the report of a court-appointed special master. October 1 2021, Robin Craig, “In term-opener, justices will hear Mississippi’s complaint that Tennessee is stealing its groundwater”, in SCOTUSblog
   This evidentiary lead had then wended its way from the NCA’s child exploitation investigations team to the computer crime team 2022-04-07, Andy Greenberg, “Inside the Bitcoin Bust That Took Down the Web’s Biggest Child Abuse Site”, in WIRED
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To turn; make a turn; go round; veer.
   with the prowe at both ends, so as they need not to wend or hold water c. 1611, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse on the Invention of Ships &c.
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To pass away; disappear; depart; vanish.

noun

1. (obsolete, UK, law) A large extent of ground; a perambulation; a circuit