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Glite Dictionary
⛵ Sailing nearly upwind ⚠️ Risky or daring
close to the wind

close to the wind

1 9.9
Sailing with the boat pointed almost into the wind to go as directly toward it as possible
  • idiom
  • Specialized
translation icon : navegar al límite
  • Your friend Billy Norton is sailing close to the wind.

Examples

  • The experienced sailors prefer to sail close to the wind to gain more speed during the race.

  • You work as close to the wind as you can.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • In a competitive race, the team decided to navigate their boat close to the wind for better performance.

  • To reach the harbor quickly, they sailed close to the wind, adjusting their sails perfectly to catch the breeze.

Synonyms

close-hauled
vsclose to the wind
  • Specialized
1 9.2

Sailing as close to the wind as possible with sails pulled in tight

describes boat's heading and speed control while pointing nearly into the wind

Surface Forms

close to the wind positive

Morphology

close + to + the + wind

This is an idiomatic, nautical metaphor: knowing the literal words 'close' and 'wind' does not transparently yield the sense ‘taking risky or borderline action’. The figurative meaning depends on cultural/figurative knowledge of sailing and is not compositionally predictable, so a B1 learner would unlikely infer it without prior exposure.

Etymology

Close to the wind comes from sailing: when a boat points almost into the wind and holds its sails tight to move forward, it is literally very close to the wind. So in sailing today the phrase means steering with the bow near the wind to go as directly as possible.