wind-bag, windbag
(ˈwɪndbæg)
[f. wind n.1 + bag n.]
1. A bag containing ‘wind’ or air. a. The bellows of an organ (obs.) or bag of a bagpipe.
| 1470–3 Rec. Andover 15 For amendyng of the wyndbagge of the organys vis. 1606 [implied in wind-bagged: see below]. 1838 G. F. Graham Mus. Comp. App. 50 Possibly the anatomical structure of the sonorous organs of these Cicadæ did not exactly resemble the wind-bag, and reed, and pipe of our biped bagpipers. |
b. The lungs (also
pl.); the chest or body considered as a receptacle of breath. Now only
jocular.
| 1552 Huloet, Wynde bagge of a man out of the which the winde passeth, and commeth forthe. 1565 Cooper Thesaurus ii. s.v. Anaxarchus, He doubled these woordes worthy of remembraunce: Beate on, beate on Anaxarchus wynde bag: for Anaxarchus thou beatest not: accomptinge his body but a bagge full of wynde. 1860 W. W. Reade Liberty Hall I. i. 10 The dubious condition of his wind⁓bags occasioned him considerable..distress. |
c. An inflated bag used as a charm to ensure a favourable wind.
| 1870 Morris Earthly Par. III. iv. 202 From witch-wives have I bought ere now Wind-bags indeed, but yet did trow Nothing therein. |
2. fig. (
contemptuous). An empty pretender, or something pretentious but unsubstantial;
esp. a voluble and senseless talker. (
Cf. wind n.1 11 b, 14.)
| 1827 Carlyle Misc., Richter (1869) 10 Consigned..to the Limbo appointed for all such windbags and deceptions. 1894 Sala London up to date ii. xxii. 343 He is at best a noisy wind-bag and braggart. |
3. Naut. slang. A sailing ship or ‘windjammer’.
| 1924 R. Clements Gipsy of Horn 11 A sailing ship—an old wind-bag, as the young, up-to-date watchkeeper would call it. 1930 J. Masefield Wanderer of Liverpool 47 A crowd of windbags moored fore and aft, to buoyed anchors. 1946 W. McFee In First Watch i. 15 He had been cook in a windbag and a sailor before the mast. |
Hence
ˈwind-bagged a., furnished with a wind-bag (sense 1 a);
ˈwindˌbaggery, inflated talk.
| 1606 J. Reynolds Dolarnys Primerose (1880) 118 There might be heard, the hollowe *wind bag'd droan's, with direfull roaring. |
| 1859 Sala Tw. round Clock (1861) 396 Irremediably pin-perforated *windbaggery. 1920 Sat. Westm. Gaz. 21 May 4/2 The stunt press, which greatly prides itself on its inexhaustible windbaggery on this subject. |