What's a "wind up"?

Question

I saw this in response to a fake question. Is that what it means? Is this just a Yahoo! Answers thing, or is the term used elsewhere?

Answer 1

In this situation (I am assuming that the question was an offensive one) to "wind someone up" means that you are trying to create tension and conflict to "set them off" or get a reaction.

It is a reference to a spring, where as you wind it tighter, it will eventually pop/spring back violently and a reference to a wind up toy where you wind the key and let them go, which causes they toy to make an action. The person maing the comment/question s the winder and the person responding to it is the spring/toy.

It is also a baseball reference, but not in this situation.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Wind-up has two distinct meanings:

as an adjective, referring to mechanisms, such as clocks, music boxes and clockwork toys, which have a spring that needs to be wound up to store power for operation
as a noun, referring to the torque that exists in a shaft when it is subject to being twisted along its axis.
As an example of the second meaning, wind-up occurs in main axle of a fixed axle vehicle if it attempts to turn a corner. The inner and outer wheels attempt to follow arcs of different radii, but the fixed axle does not allow them to rotate independently, so the axle is subject to wind-up. It is to prevent wind-up that a differential gearing mechanism is used in road vehicles. Users of Series Land Rovers are advised not to engage four-wheel drive for road use because there is no differential between the front and rear wheels. If this advice is ignored, wind-up can cause the drive shaft linking the front and rear wheels to snap.
or in an analogous sense when a person is put in a stressful situation as a practical joke.

As when a person is put in the situation of being deliberately led to believe one thing whilst experiencing another, usually in order to evoke an emotional response. In this usage, wind-up can be used as a noun, as in a wind-up, or as a verb, as in to wind someone up. People can also 'snap', i.e. lose their temper, if they suffer a sense of humour failure as a result of a wind-up. Prank phone calls are a type of wind-up commonly used by some radio stations, and a number of TV series, e.g. Candid Camera and Beadle's About, have been based on the entertainment value of making real people feel or appear stupid by means of wind-ups.
When used as a verb, no hyphen is required. The word is also used to mean to bring to an end as in to wind up a meeting. People who have a reputation for performing wind-ups are known as wind-up merchants.

Answer 3

a frequently used term "wind up"

:as a verb, to conclude an affair (for example, the winding-up of a company

"lets wind up for the day"
meaning
let's call it a day (enuf for today)

"enron has wound up operations"
meaning
enron has closed shop > ceases to exist

>> most commonly used reference
besides, also used as mentioned in wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind-up

Answer 4

It's a baseball term. It's right before the pitcher throws the ball to the batter.

Answer 5

A fake answer or a pratical joke played on someone.

Answer 6

It's baseball. A windup is what a pitcher does with his arm before he throws the ball.

Answer 7

in australia a wind up is when someone is doing something to get a reaction

Answer 8

the final act are part

Answer 9

to relax...maybe...