# What does the phrase "in the wind" mean to you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 24, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-phrase-in-the-wind-mean-to-you/842246 "2019-10-24T18:11:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-phrase-in-the-wind-mean-to-you/842246/21 "2019-10-25T01:27:35Z")
Rumors, gossip. “I heard that Bob’s getting canned.” “Where did you hear that?” “Oh, it’s in the wind.” ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-phrase-in-the-wind-mean-to-you/842246/22 "2019-10-25T01:42:32Z")
Colonel Flagg is [in the wind](https://youtu.be/P2TrW8jR8EM) ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-phrase-in-the-wind-mean-to-you/842246/23 "2019-10-25T02:47:47Z")
Gone like a fart in the wind does not mean a fart is immanent. Rumors of impeachment are in the wind DOES mean it impeachment is likely. Therefore, context dependent. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-phrase-in-the-wind-mean-to-you/842246/24 "2019-10-25T03:58:11Z")
“Context”, but “other” really. “…[friends] who came in with the dust and are gone with the wind” is another Dylan quote. Otherwise, something “in the wind” is rumored but not inevitable, nor gone except words or thoughts “lost in the wind”. (Something) in the wind. (Something) with the wind. (Something) to the wind. Ah, that last: “There was a desert day so windy, a hen sitting on a barb-wire fence with her tail to the wind laid the same egg twelve times.” Or, “He spoke to the wind and it whispered back.” How about casting our fate to the wind? Let it go where it will! ---
**Author:** ![squeetaleta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@squeetaleta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeetaleta)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-phrase-in-the-wind-mean-to-you/842246/25 "2019-10-25T04:17:20Z")
I’ll just go wherever the wind takes me Sent from my A574BL using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![48Willys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/db5fbb/32.png) [@48Willys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/48Willys)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-phrase-in-the-wind-mean-to-you/842246/26 "2019-10-25T04:25:32Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Into the wind is about football passing and kicking conditions 😉 It is also critical when either taking off or landing an aircraft. The question was about the phrase “In the wind”, not the phrase “into the wind”. Context is critical. Mike is in the wind means that Mike slipped away & no one seems to know where he is. Usually that implies that the LAW would like to know his whereabouts. Raises for the top tier is in the wind means that the rumors are that the top tier folks will be getting a pay hike. The answers are blowing in the wind means, at least to me, that the answers are, like Mike, nowhere to be found. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-phrase-in-the-wind-mean-to-you/842246/27 "2019-10-25T04:29:21Z")
I’ve never heard this expression. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-phrase-in-the-wind-mean-to-you/842246/28 "2019-10-25T06:34:04Z")
Context. A person “in the wind” has disappeared, taken off. Something “in the wind” is an expectation that it will happen ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-phrase-in-the-wind-mean-to-you/842246/29 "2019-10-25T08:41:18Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind. > [@Leaffan](#): > > And apart from these lyrics, I have never heard “blowing in the wind” used in any context at all. > > Maybe things like “fluttering in the breeze,” to mean indecisive or uncaring, but not “blowing in the wind.” I don’t think I’ve ever come across “in the wind” as an actual English usage, intended to mean anything. Fifty years or so ago in France, “Dans le vent” – literally “in the wind” --was a popular slang expression among young people: meaning, switched-on; in tune with the spirit of the day among the young. I was given to understand that it was taken directly from the French version of Bob Dylan’s words, “Ecoute, mon ami, ecoute dans le vent; Ecoute la reponse dans le vent.” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-phrase-in-the-wind-mean-to-you/842246/30 "2019-10-25T10:47:00Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’m familiar with two meanings. > > 1. Gone. If I said “Joe’s in the wind.” it would mean that Joe left. It usually implies Joe left quietly and his departure wasn’t noticed as it happened. > > 2. There are rumors going around. If I said “There’s firings in the wind.” it would mean there are rumors about people being fired but no official announcements yet. I’ve only heard the second one. I’m actually a bit surprised at how lopsided the poll was–I would’ve bet it would be lopsided the other way. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-phrase-in-the-wind-mean-to-you/842246/31 "2019-10-25T12:01:31Z")
Then there is “twisting in the wind”, meaning both “utterly failed in what you were trying to do”, and “utterly abandoned by everyone who should have supported you”. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-phrase-in-the-wind-mean-to-you/842246/32 "2019-10-25T12:52:20Z")
I voted “gone; disappeared” but somehow, somewhere I also associate it with being on motorcycle. I don’t know where I got that idea, perhaps that is part of bikers’ lingo(?) And - this is kind of spooky (to me) - I used that very expression a couple of days ago while I was relating my weekend activities. I just so happened to get to ride in a friend’s Exocet (race car thingy) and the next day on another friend’s Harley and I said something like “seems like I was in the wind all weekend”. That is probably the first time I have ever used that expression and now we have a thread on it. Wooooohhhooohhohoho ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-phrase-in-the-wind-mean-to-you/842246/33 "2019-10-25T13:09:09Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > > The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind. > > And apart from these lyrics, I have never heard “blowing in the wind” used in any context at all. > > Maybe things like “fluttering in the breeze,” to mean indecisive or uncaring, but not “blowing in the wind.” Yup. I can’t think of any instances of hearing this phrase outside of that song. If I heard it, I would guess from context. And probably guess it meant something like: > [@doreen](#): > > I’ve always heard this as “There’s firings in the _air_” Hmm, I may have heard this one, but I think the word “twisting” is critical: > [@mbh](#): > > Then there is “twisting in the wind”, meaning both “utterly failed in what you were trying to do”, and “utterly abandoned by everyone who should have supported you”. The image is something hanging from a rope, twisting around, without being able to keep it’s course. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-phrase-in-the-wind-mean-to-you/842246.md?page=1)