take the wind out of someone's sails
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To suddenly discourage or disappoint someone
Literally: remove the wind from a ship's sails
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
I think she thought I had taken the wind out of Rossetti's sails ….
Wouldn't it take the wind out of his sails more thoroughly if she seemed indifferent rather than angry?
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
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 “take the wind out of someone's sails” mean?
To suddenly discourage or disappoint someone Literally: remove the wind from a ship's sails
Is “take the wind out of someone's sails” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.