whistle down the wind

English

Verb

whistle down the wind (third-person singular simple present whistles down the wind, present participle whistling down the wind, simple past and past participle whistled down the wind)

1. (transitive) To set (someone) free, allowing them to go their own way and do what they choose.
   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “chapter VI, The Landed”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book IV (Horoscope):

     Can he do nothing for his Burns but make a Gauger of him; lionise him, bedinner him, for a foolish while: then whistle him down the wind, to desperation and bitter death?

2. (transitive) To badmouth someone or something; to disparage.
   • 2013, April Kihlstrom, An Outrageous Proposal:

     It is very easy for you to whistle down the wind an eligible partner. There are far too many of us who can only wish we might have had the choice!

3. To talk to no purpose.

See also

• whistle in the dark
• whistle in the wind
• whistle past the graveyard
• whistle Dixie