to wind off
- phrasal verb
- /wɪnd ɔf/
:
desenrollar
- As the meeting drew to a close, he began to wind off his presentation, summarizing the key points.
Examples
-
She decided to wind off the old cable instead of replacing it.
-
The teacher helped the students wind off their projects before the end of the semester.
-
A dirt road wound off toward a cluster of rocks that popped out of the ground like giant P40 elephant legs and cast long shadows in the afternoon light.
Fiction book (1993)
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To stop something or make it finish
∞
1.0
To bring something to an end or complete it
190
2.0
To complete an activity or task
104
4.1
Stop doing something for a short time, for example at a point in a book
58
4.2
To stop something that is happening or being given
39
3.7
To relax after a busy or stressful time and slowly come to an end
31
4.2
To stop using something slowly over time
20
3.5
To use up the last of something
19
3.9
Finish a project, account, or process
17
3.7
Bring an activity or meeting to an end
5
3.7
Make a wrapped or twisted thing loose and straight
1
3.6
End something completely so it does not continue
Pull something off a reel or spool
How Gradual
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal sense 'to remove by unrolling' is directly derivable from 'wind' (to coil/wrap) + 'off' (to take/remove), so a learner who knows both words can infer the meaning. The extended sense of 'bring something to an end' is a straightforward metaphorical extension of removing/clearing away or completing an action, following common particle-verb composition patterns, making the MWE overall transparent to B1 learners.
Etymology
The verb wind off comes from the image of unrolling a roll: you wind the roll and pull the tape off so it comes away. So it can mean 'to remove by unrolling' and, by the same slow action, 'to finish' or 'bring something to an end'.