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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To proceed on or along; go: wend one's way home.
  2. v. To go one's way; proceed.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. l. To turn; change.
  2. To direct (one's way or course); proceed upon.
  3. l. To turn; make a turn; go round; veer.
  4. To take one's way or course; proceed; go.
  5. To pass away; disappear; depart; vanish.
  6. n. A name applied in early times by the Germans to their Slavic neighbors.
  7. n. A member of a branch of the Slavic race dwelling in Lusatia: same as Sorb.
  8. n. Obsolete preterits of ween.

Wiktionary

  1. v. To go or proceed along some course or way.
  2. v. to direct (oneself), pursue one's way

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. p. p. of wene.
  2. v. To go; to pass; to betake one's self.
  3. v. To turn round.
  4. v. To direct; to betake; -- used chiefly in the phrase to wend one's way. Also used reflexively.
  5. n. A large extent of ground; a perambulation; a circuit.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. direct one's course or way

Etymologies

  1. Middle English wenden, from Old English wendan.

Examples

  • “The heat and air condition requirements vary between galleries, so visitors wend through different temperature zones, time periods and continents until they arrive at the exhibit's opening image: a shimmering white gown constructed out of razor clam shells juxtaposed with a blood-red dress with a bodice made of dyed microscope slides and ostrich feathers.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Not Since the 'Mona Lisa'...

  • “Though many of the lawyers stopped attending after Mr. Rifaat barred television cameras from the courtroom the following week, there are still more than 80 prosecuting attorneys working on the case who are trying to wend their way through the complex charges against the 10 defendants.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Mubarak Prosecutors Face Criticism

  • “I leave them that way because it reminds me of my father," he says while we wend our way through levels of interior spaces suffused with a subaqueous light that filters through the Maison's famous glass-brick facade and spreads across the ivory rubberized floor.”

    The Wall Street Journal: The Court of Modernism

  • “Most drivers that wend their way down the north side of the River Thames in West London will barely have noticed them.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Streets on the Thames

  • “First, the radical transformation of the US economy, by whatever means necessary, then it will take years for all the constitutional challenges to wend their way through the judicial labyrinth.”

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Tushnet on Lithwick’s Lament

  • “As evening approaches, we wend our way back home, to supper, bath and bedtime stories.”

    Simon & Schuster: Chicken Soup for the Soul: Grandmothers

  • “Today's court hearing is an early step in the case against Jared Loughner that could take years to wend its way through the criminal justice system.”

    USA Today: Giffords suspect Loughner faces Monday hearing

  • “For the most part, however, readers are left to wend their way through an often beguiling maze of digression, reminiscence, yakety-yak erudition and occasional unreliability.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Stranger In a Strange Land

  • “Economic stimulus money is just starting to wend its way here, and Obama has not tackled broad healthcare reform, a critical campaign promise for a region with one of the highest rates of uninsured people in the country.”

    Sunday Reading

  • “You may never have heard of it, but this statute enabled 15 presidents to take swift action to protect Americans' lands when they were in jeopardy, without waiting for legislation to wend its way through Congress.”

    The Huffington Post: Rep. John Garamendi: Millions of Acres of Land You Inherited are at Risk

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‘wend’ has been looked up 1915 times, loved by 6 people, added to 50 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 8.