way the wind blows, which

1. Also, how the wind blows. How matters stand, as in Let's see which way the wind blows before we decide, or He's going to find out how the wind blows concerning a promotion. This metaphoric term for the course of events first appeared in John Heywood's proverb collection of 1546.

2. see way the wind blows.

Example Sentences

Like a poet, he extolls the virtues of the northwest wind and wonders how city dwellers can live without "knowing which way the wind blows, which way the rain falls, how the sea surges, the land lives and the forests die."

From Time Magazine Archive