Useful English Word or Phrase to Boost Your English

Wind Up (Verb/Noun)

What does it mean?

Quick summary: An informal UK term for teasing someone or playing a joke to get a reaction.

To wind someone up means to tease them or tell them something untrue to provoke a reaction. As a noun, a wind-up is the act of playing a joke on someone.

REAL WORDS.
REAL ENGLISH.
Native UK character with a collection of useful English phrases

Is it positive or negative?

It is usually neutral to negative, depending on if the person finds it funny or annoying.

When do you use it?

Use it in everyday conversation when the situation matches the meaning.

Examples

Example 1: Are you being serious, or is this just a massive wind-up?

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Question for you

Have you heard or used 'wind up' in real conversation?

Try saying your answer aloud, using the expression.

Practise it in a lesson

Are you looking for English speaking practice online?

Are you looking for English speaking practice online? This is no wind-up - you can actually reach fluency! I offer online English lessons using Teams, Google Meet, and Zoom for my high-quality classes. My English speaking lessons are perfect if you want to improve your spoken fluency and learn natural vocabulary directly from a British native speaker. If you want to study English with a British native speaker online, you can find out more about lessons here. For another useful word, see chuffed.

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