willow in the wind
- idiom
- Literature
- On stage, she became a willow in the wind, captivating the audience with her fluid, graceful dance.
Examples
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Her yoga teacher, a true willow in the wind, demonstrated remarkable balance and poise.
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His movements are as graceful as a willow in the wind.
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He moved through the crowded room like a willow in the wind, avoiding every obstacle with ease.
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She dances like a willow in the wind.
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He moved through the crowded room like a willow in the wind, avoiding every obstacle with ease.
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On stage, she became a willow in the wind, captivating the audience with her fluid, graceful dance.
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Her yoga teacher, a true willow in the wind, demonstrated remarkable balance and poise.
Antonyms
How Graceful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from the image of a willow tree bending or swaying in the wind: combining 'willow' + 'in' + 'the' + 'wind' evokes a person who is supple or moves gracefully. This figurative mapping is a transparent, easily inferable image (and similar tree-bending metaphors occur in many languages), so a B1 learner who knows the words should understand the MWE.
Etymology
Willow in the wind comes from the image of a willow tree moving smoothly in the wind, its branches bending without breaking. So calling someone a willow in the wind means they are 'graceful' and 'flexible' in movement or character.