Wend

Wend is a verb that means to go in a specified direction or along a winding or indirect route; to proceed along a course that is not direct, often by following turns or curves rather than a straight line. It is commonly used in literary or formal writing and is less common in contemporary everyday speech, particularly in American English, where speakers may prefer wind one’s way or meander.

The word derives from Old English wendian, meaning to turn or bend, and is related to other Germanic forms such as German wenden. The sense of moving along a curved or circuitous path developed in Middle English and has persisted in modern usage, especially in phrases like wend one’s way.

In usage, wend is typically intransitive and takes prepositional complements such as toward, through, or along. The present tense is wend, with the past tense wended and the present participle wending. For example: “We wended our way through the old town,” or “They wend toward the riverbank, following a serpentine path.” Because it is somewhat formal or dated, some writers substitute more common verbs such as meander or wind (one’s way) in everyday prose.

See also: meander, wind (to twist or coil), circuitous, serpentine. Wend is a comparatively rare, stylistically marked verb in modern English, valued for its precise sense of a deliberate, indirect route.