wind back

wind back

1. To twist or turn around and face or go in the opposite direction. These small country roads keep winding back on themselves, so it has been taking us a lot longer to reach the cabin than I thought it would. My paper route goes all the way out to the edge of town before eventually winding back.
2. To set a dial or meter of some kind to an earlier position or reading. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "wind" and "back." They were caught winding the electricity meter back to pay less than they owed. I forgot to wind back the clocks for daylight savings time and ended up oversleeping.
See also: back, wind
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

wind back

[for something, such as a road] to turn so that it heads in the direction from whence it came. The road we got lost on wound back and we were not able to reach the lake on time. When we were lost, we found a stream in the woods, but it wound back and did not lead us in the direction we wanted.
See also: back, wind
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

wind back

v.
To set some clock or counter to an earlier reading: Don't forget to wind your clock back for standard time. When he sold the car, he wound back the odometer to make the car seem newer.
See also: back, wind
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • twist arm
  • twist somebody's arm
  • twist someone’s arm
  • twist someone's arm
  • swirl around
  • twist
  • twist (one's) arm
  • twist (someone) around (one's) (little) finger
  • twist off
  • coil
References in periodicals archive
The Australian dollar slipped below parity with the greenback Monday and analysts tipped it could fall further as speculation mounts that the US could wind back its quantitative easing policy.
Warne said on Tuesday if you wind back the clock to the old days it was about going to a pub or locking yourselves in a room with a few beers in a relaxed environment and making it all informal.
To find out what is going on we have to wind back two weeks and we find the negotiator trying to convince a gang of kidnappers to release the family they are holding captive.
KEVIN PRENDERGAST, the elder statesman of Curragh trainers, will be attempting to wind back the years with Dunboyne Express today, 35 years on from achieving success in the Classic with Northern Treasure.
I wouldn't mind being adult-sized, my nose is a little bulbous, ears a little too sticky-out and goodness knows, who wouldn't love to be young again if we could wind back the clock?
The Coming of Age: Life Begins At 60 series concludes with an edition of the show renowned for its ability to wind back the clock for women.
The Falcons will wind back up after this week's rest, beginning preparations in earnest for that Bristol trip on Friday, February 13.
The move is part of the bank's strategy to wind back its mortgage business.
The congressional sanction has evidently put the wind back in the sails of administration lawyers, who, in simultaneous filings on November 13, both argued before the U.S.
"If I could wind back the hands of time and do things differently, believe me, I would; I would have practiced safer sex right off the bat.
'Even a well-managed and relatively small foot-and-mouth outbreak would take something like NZ$10 billion(pounds 3.9 billion) off economic growth and basically wind back the economy for a year to 18 months,' Sherwin said.
A vital--but often hated--component is the common hose, with its infernal leaks, kinks, and other annoyances, as well as the fact that it simply won't wind back neatly to get out of the way, no matter how many reels or other gadgets are employed.
And no one knows yet whether the frenzied activities of the world's computer buffs will manage to beat the Millennium bug (where computer clocks unable to cope with a new first digit in the year will wind back to 1900, and paralyze hospitals, financial institutions and airlines in the process).
It may sound like hard work but it's literally a walk in the park, writes WARREN MANGER YOU might think you haven't time to get fit and healthy, but just 30 minutes of moderate exercise, such as a brisk walk, is enough to start shedding those extra pounds and wind back your body clock.