take the wind out of someone's sails

English

Alternative forms

• knock the wind out of someone's sails

Etymology

Referring to the idea of a ship that intercepts the wind of another, causing it to slow or stop.

Pronunciation

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Verb

take the wind out of someone's sails

1. (idiomatic) To discourage someone greatly; to cause someone to lose hope or the will to continue; to thwart or minimize someone's ambitions.
   • c. 1860 Louisa May Alcott, "Aunt Kipp":

     "I tell you Van Bahr Lamb is a fool." . . .

     But Polly . . . completely took the wind out of her sails, by coolly remarking,— "I like fools."

   • 1922, Frances Hodgson Burnett, chapter 31, in The Head of the House of Coombe:

     Could he have some elderly idea of wanting a youngster for a wife? Occasionally an old chap did. Serve him right if some young chap took the wind out of his sails.

   • 1990 May 27, Serge Schmemann, "German rightist quits after party suffers setback," New York Times (retrieved 17 July 2011):

     [T]he Republicans . . . have been repeatedly battered in the polls since German unification became a mainstream German concern and took the wind out of their sails.

   • 2011 April 14, "Quotes of the Day," Time:

     "It took the wind out of our sails," he says. "I had no Plan B. I was a wreck."

Synonyms

• flummox, stultify, stymie, thwart

Translations

to discourage someone

• Dutch: iemand de wind uit de zeilen nemen
• German: jemandem den Wind aus den Segeln nehmen
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: remare contro, scoraggiare (it), disilludere, mettere in ginocchio