Meaning trap
wind up
provoke deliberately
to deliberately tease, annoy, or provoke someone, often in a playful or irritating way.
Don't mix these meanings
Same phrase, different job.
to deliberately tease, annoy, or provoke someone, often in a playful or irritating way.
'wind up' also has the more basic meaning 'finish something'; this is the advanced sense.
Hear it in context
Notice where the phrase sounds natural.
- He loves to wind his little sister up by hiding her toys.interpersonal
- While some people enjoy winding others up as a form of humour, this behaviour can easily cross the line and cause genuine irritation.IELTS speaking
Fix the pattern
Pattern: wind someone up
WrongStop winding up me.
RightStop winding me up.
With a pronoun, the object goes in the middle: 'wind me up'.
Patternwind someone up
Use it right
Choose the version that sounds natural in speech.
'Wind up' (BrE) is the everyday verb for teasing or provoking someone; 'deliberately provoking for amusement' is formal.
Build natural chunks
Words that usually travel with it.
wind up + personme upyour brotheron purposejust to annoy
Don't confuse it
This sense is different from 'wind up' meaning 'finish something' (B1) or 'end up in a situation' (B2). Here, the focus is on provoking or teasing a person, not ending or arriving somewhere.
Related
- wind up (finish something) — 'wind up' also has the more basic meaning 'finish something'; this is the advanced sense.