▪ I. winze1 Mining.
(wɪnz)
Also 8 winds.
[The earliest recorded spelling suggests derivation from wind n.2]
A shaft or an inclined passage sunk from one level to another, but not rising to the surface.
| 1757 Borlase in Phil. Trans. L. 503 The stage-boards of the little winds or shafts 20 fathoms deep were perceived to move. 1778 Pryce Min. Cornub. 164 The under-ground Shaft or Winds, is worked by hand, with a windlass only. 1839 Penny Cycl. XV. 244/2 The common windlass..is much used..in sinking winzes. 1871 Daily News 22 Sept., The footway winze leading from the 70 to the 80 has been completed. 1889 C. G. W. Lock Gold-Mining 283 A winze or an incline, the winze being preferable, is made through the bed-rock to the gravel. |
▪ II. winze2 Sc.
(wɪnz)
[a. early Flem. wensch ‘imprecatio’ (Kilian): see wish v.]
An imprecation, a curse.
| 1785 Burns Halloween xxiii, He..loot a winze, an' drew a stroke. 1819 W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd (1827) 186 Wi' bitter winze and ban. |
▪ III. winze3 Cornwall.
Also winz.
Altered f. winch n.1 Also attrib.
| 1839 H. T. De la Beche Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc. xv. 529 The miners were..taken up in a stirrup by two men, who wound the rope, probably over a winze. 1855 Leifchild Cornwall 36 Upon this platform was fixed a winz for four men. 1875 J. H. Collins Metal Mining 7/4 The small kibbles used with the tackle are called ‘winze-kibbles’. |