🗓️ Idiom: A Wind-Up (noun)
💬 Meaning
- A joke or tease meant to trick or annoy someone for fun.
- Something said to get a reaction, often in a light-hearted way.
🧠 Example Sentences
- When he said the boss was quitting, it turned out to be a wind-up.
- Don’t get upset, it was just a wind-up to make you laugh.
- The team often plays wind-ups on each other during stressful weeks.
🏛️ Origin
The phrase “a wind-up” comes from winding up a toy or mechanism to make it move. In the same way, teasing or joking “winds up” a person by getting them emotionally stirred or tricked. It became popular in British English in the mid-1900s.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
When she said we had to work on Saturday, it was just ________.
Answer
a wind-up
2. Choose the correct answer:
If something is “a wind-up,” it is:
a) A serious announcement
b) A joke or tease
c) A team meeting
Answer
b) A joke or tease
3. Change the sentence using “a wind-up”:
“They tricked him into thinking his report was lost.”
Answer
They told him his report was lost. It was just a wind-up
ℹ️ Other Useful Pages
📚 Learning Resources
👉 Idioms for Humour in the Workplace
👉 Business English Idioms List
👥 Support Spaces
👉 Student Space
👉 Tutor Toolkit
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📫 Get a Daily Idiom
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Rob is a CELTA qualified English teacher with 15 years of international experience. He has a BSc and PGDip from Loughborough and St Andrews universities in the UK. He has taught in Thailand and Saudi Arabia and now works with professionals worldwide.
