four winds
Every compass point
The four winds are the cardinal directions—north, south, east, and west—conceived as sources of wind.
The phrase appears in expressions suggesting dispersion or totality: scattered to the four winds, from the four winds.
Something cast to the four winds is thrown away or abandoned completely: She threw caution to the four winds.
- northArctic-facing cardinal direction
- gustBrief wind surge
- southCardinal direction opposite north
- AeolusGreek wind deity
- dispersalSpreading in many directions
east · breeze · compass rose · freedom · wild and free · divine · monsoon · elemental · destiny · west · exile · scattering · far and wide · change · gale · mapmaking · direction · squall
- windsbreeze, gust, gusts, gale, squall
- foursquartet, quadruplets, tetrad, quadruple, cardinal directions
- mahjongtiles, hand, meld, melds, pong
- Babylonian mythologyMarduk, Tiamat, Enuma Elish, Anu, creation myth
- Indigenous SpiritualityGhost Dance, spirit animals, ancestor spirits, vision quest, ancestral spirits
four windscenter
Middle of anything
focal point · convergence · concentration · nucleus · gathering place
four windsone way
Single permitted direction
true north · due north · straight line · narrow path · beeline
four, fours, fourth, fourths, fourthly, fourteen, fourteenth, forty, fortieth