lay an anchor to the windward

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Take precautions against a potential problem

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

đưa ra biện pháp phòng ngừa chống lại một vấn đề tiềm năng

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: drop an anchor upwind
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The company laid an anchor to the windward by diversifying its investments

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “lay an anchor to the windward” mean?

Take precautions against a potential problem Literally: drop an anchor upwind

Is “lay an anchor to the windward” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.