winding

Etymology 1

From wind + -ing, from wind (“to wrap”).

verb

1. present participle and gerund of wind

noun

1. Something wound around something else.
2. The manner in which something is wound.
3. One complete turn of something wound.
   […] my mother’s pale arms emerged from the windings of her sheets and flailed in the air […] 1966, Cynthia Ozick, Trust, New York: The New American Library, Part One, Chapter 7, p. 44
4. (especially in the plural) Curving or bending movement, twists and turns.
   1610, John Healey, The City of God by Augustine of Hippo, London: George Eld, Book 13, p. 680, The Labyrinth] A building so entangled in windings and cyrcles, that it deceiueth all that come in it.
   […] in vain I do disguise me from thee, thou know’st me, know’st the very inmost Windings and Recesses of my Soul. 1706, William Congreve, The Double Dealer, London: Jacob Tonson, act I, scene 1, page 9
   The ascent is precipitous, but the path is cut into continual and short windings, which enable you to surmount the perpendicularity of the mountain. 1818, Mary Shelley, chapter 2, in Frankenstein, Penguin, published 2018, page 88
   1849, Charlotte Brontë, letter cited in Elizabeth Gaskell, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, 1857, Volume 2, Chapter , Eugene Forcarde, the reviewer in question, follows Currer Bell through every winding, discerns every point, discriminates every shade, proves himself master of the subject, and lord of the aim.
5. (electrical) A length of wire wound around the core of an electrical transformer.
6. (music, lutherie, bowmaking) Lapping.

adj

1. Twisting, turning or sinuous.
2. Spiral or helical.

Etymology 2

From Middle English wyndynge, equivalent to wind + -ing, from wind (“movement of air”), as the wind was used to assist turning.

verb

1. present participle and gerund of wind

noun

1. The act or process of winding (turning a boat etc. around).