different between winding vs circuitous

English

Etymology 1

From wind +? -ing, from wind (“to wrap”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?wa?nd??/

Verb

winding

1. present participle of wind

Noun

winding (countable and uncountable, plural windings)

1. Something wound around something else.
2. The manner in which something is wound.
3. One complete turn of something wound.
   • 1966, Cynthia Ozick, Trust, New York: The New American Library, Part One, Chapter 7, p. 44,^[1]

     […] my mother’s pale arms emerged from the windings of her sheets and flailed in the air […]

4. (especially in the plural) Curving or bending movement, twists and turns.
   • 1610, John Healey, The City of God by Augustine of Hippo, London: George Eld, Book 13, p. 680,^[2]

     The Labyrinth] A building so entangled in windings and cyrcles, that it deceiueth all that come in it.

   • 1706, William Congreve, The Double Dealer, London: Jacob Tonson, Act I, Scene 1, p. 9,^[3]

     […] in vain I do disguise me from thee, thou know’st me, know’st the very inmost Windings and Recesses of my Soul.

   • 1818, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Penguin, 2018, Chapter 2, p. 88,^[4]

     The ascent is precipitous, but the path is cut into continual and short windings, which enable you to surmount the perpendicularity of the mountain.

   • 1849, Charlotte Brontë, letter cited in Elizabeth Gaskell, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, 1857, Volume 2, Chapter ,^[5]

     Eugene Forcarde, the reviewer in question, follows Currer Bell through every winding, discerns every point, discriminates every shade, proves himself master of the subject, and lord of the aim.
5. (electrical) A length of wire wound around the core of an electrical transformer.
6. (music, lutherie, bowmaking) Lapping.

Translations

Adjective

winding (comparative more winding, superlative most winding)

1. Twisting, turning or sinuous.
2. Spiral or helical.

Translations

Etymology 2

From wind +? -ing, from wind (“movement of air”), as the wind was used to assist turning.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?w?nd??/

Verb

winding

1. present participle of wind

Noun

winding (countable and uncountable, plural windings)

1. The act or process of winding (turning a boat etc. around).

Derived terms

• winding hole

Anagrams

• dwining

English

Etymology

First attested in 1664. From Latin circuit?sus, from circuitus, from circume? (“I go around”), from circum (“around”) + e? (“I go”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /s???kju??t?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /s??kju??t?s/, /s??kju??t?s/

Adjective

circuitous (comparative more circuitous, superlative most circuitous)

1. Not direct or to the point.
2. Of a long and winding route.

Synonyms

• (not direct): indirect, roundabout
• (of a winding route): roundabout, tortuous

Derived terms

• circuitously
• circuitousness
• uncircuitous

Translations