wind up

Wind something up: finish it

You can wind up a meeting, a discussion or another activity by bringing it to an end. With a pronoun, put the pronoun between the two words: wind it up.

Winding up a company concerns bringing its affairs to a close. The phrase alone does not explain the legal procedure or establish why the company is closing.

Wind up somewhere: end up there

This pattern describes a final place, state or result. You might wind up at the wrong station or wind up as the team’s captain.

The outcome can be unexpected, but it does not have to be bad.

Wind someone up: annoy them

In informal British English, to wind someone up can mean to annoy or upset them. Wind me up belongs to this pattern; wind the meeting up belongs to the finishing pattern.

Compare the strong anger expressed by incense and the irritation expressed by nettle.

Wind up and windup

The verb phrase is written as two words. Merriam-Webster also records windup as a noun and an adjective, including the adjective for a toy operated by a spring wound by hand.

The verb wind here has a turning or twisting history, unlike wind meaning moving air. For a different use of twisting as a description, see gnarly, which can describe knotty branches as well as difficult situations. The expressions are not interchangeable.