Dictionary:

windmill

  (wĭnd'mĭl')

1. A machine that runs on the energy generated by a wheel of adjustable blades or slats rotated by the wind.
2. Something, such as a toy pinwheel, that is similar to a windmill in appearance or operation.

To move or cause to move like the wheel of a windmill; rotate sweepingly.

tilt at windmills

1. To confront and engage in conflict with an imagined opponent or threat.

Background

A windmill is a structure or machine that converts wind into usable energy through the rotation of a wheel made up of adjustable blades. Traditionally, the energy generated by a windmill has been used to grind grain into flour. Windmills are designed by skilled craftsmen and can be constructed on site using hand tools. Windmills developed steadily over the centuries and achieved their most prominence in Europe during the eighteenth century. They were largely replaced as a power generating structure when steam power was harnessed during the nineteenth century. Today, windmill technology is experiencing a renaissance and the wind turbine promises to be an important alternative to fossil fuels in the future.

History

Man has used wind to power machines for centuries. The earliest use was most likely as a power source for sail boats, propelling them across the water. The exact date that people constructed windmills specifically for doing work is unknown, but the first recorded windmill design originated in Persia around A.D. 500-900. This machine was originally used for pumping water then it was adapted for grinding grain. It had vertical sails made from bundles of lightweight wood attached to a vertical shaft by horizontal struts. The design, known as the panemone, is one of the least efficient windmill structures invented. It should be noted that windmills may have been used in China over 2,000 years ago making it the actual birthplace for vertical-axis windmills. However, the earliest recorded use found by archeologists in China is A.D. 1219.

The concept of the windmill spread to Europe after the Crusades. The earliest European designs, documented in A.D. 1270, had horizontal axes instead of vertical ones. The reason for this discrepancy is unknown, but it is likely a result of two factors. First, the European windmills may have been patterned after water wheels that had a horizontal axis. The water wheel had been known in Europe for long before this. Second, the horizontal axis design was more efficient and worked better. In general, these mills had four blades mounted on a central post. They had a cog and ring gear that translated the horizontal motion of the central shaft into vertical motion for the grindstone or wheel which would then be used for pumping water or grinding grain.

The European millwrights improved windmill technology immensely over the centuries. Most of the innovation came from the Dutch and the English. One of the most important improvements was the introduction of the tower mill. This design allowed for the mill's blades to be moved into the wind as required and the main body to be permanently fixed in place. The Dutch created multi-story towers where mill operators could work and also live. The English introduced a number of automatic controls that made windmills more efficient.

During the pre-industrial world, windmills were the electric motors of Europe. In addition to water pumping and grain grinding, they were used for powering saw mills and processing spices, dyes, and tobacco. However, the development of steam power during the nineteenth century, and the uncertain nature of windmill power resulted in a steady decline of the use of large windmill structures. Today, only a small fraction of the windmills that used to power the world are still standing.

Even as larger windmills were abandoned, smaller fan-type windmills were thriving. These windmills were used primarily for pumping water on farms. In America, these designs were perfected during the nineteenth century. The Halladay windmill was introduced in 1854 followed by the Aermotor and Dempster designs. The later two designs are still in use today. In fact, between 1850 and 1970 in the United States over six million were constructed.

Design

There are two classes of windmill, horizontal axis and vertical axis. The vertical axis design was popular during the early development of the windmill. However, its inefficiency of operation led to the development of the numerous horizontal axis designs.

Of the horizontal axes versions, there are a variety of these including the post mill, smock mill, tower mill, and the fan mill. The earliest design is the post mill. It is named for the large, upright post to which the body of the mill is balanced. This design gives flexibility to the mill operator because the windmill can be turned to catch the most wind depending on the direction it is blowing. To keep the post stable a support structure is built around it. Typically, this structure is elevated off the ground with brick or stone to prevent rotting.

The post mill has four blades mounted on a central post. The horizontal shaft of the blades is connected to a large break wheel. The break wheel interacts with a gear system, called the wallower, which rotates a central, vertical shaft. This motion can then be used to power water pumping or grain grinding activities.

The smock mill is similar to the post mill but has included some significant improvements. The name is derived from the fact that the body looks vaguely like a dress or smock as they were called. One advantage is the fact that only the top of the mill is moveable. This allows the main body structure to be more permanent while the rest could be adjusted to collect wind no matter what direction it is blowing. Since it does not move, the main body can be made larger and taller. This means that more equipment can be housed in the mill, and that taller sails can be used to collect even more wind. Most smock mills are eight sided although this can vary from six to 12.

Tower mills are further improvements on smock mills. They have a rotating cap and permanent body, but this body is made of brick or stone. This fact makes it possible for the towers to be rounded. A round structure allows for even larger and taller towers. Additionally, brick and stone make the tower windmills the most weather resistant design.

While the previous windmill designs are for larger structures that could service entire towns, the fan-type windmill is made specifically for individuals. It is much smaller and used primarily for pumping water. It consists of a fixed tower (mast), a wheel and tail assembly (fan), a head assembly, and a pump. The masts can be 10-15 ft (3-15 m) high. The number of blades can range from four to 20 and have a diameter between 6 and 16 ft (1.8-4.9 m).

Raw Materials

Windmills can be made with a variety of materials. Post mills are made almost entirely of wood. A lightweight wood, like balsa wood, is used for the fan blades and a stronger, heavier wood is used for the rest of the structure. The wood is coated with paint or a resin to protect it from the outside environment. The smock and tower mills, built by the Dutch and British prior to the twentieth century, use many of the same materials used for the construction of houses including wood, bricks and stones.

The main body of the fan-type mills is made with galvanized steel. This process of treating steel makes it weather resistant and strong. The blades of the fan are made with a lightweight, galvanized steel or aluminum. The pump is made of bronze and brass that inhibits freezing. Leather or synthetic polymers are used for washers and o-rings.

The Manufacturing
Process

Windmills are always erected on site using pre-made parts. The following description relates to the fan-type windmill. The basic steps include making the parts and then assembling the structure.

Making the tower parts

• The tower parts are made from galvanized steel. This process begins with a roll of coiled sheet metal. The coils are put on a de-spooling device and fed to the production line. They are run under a straightener to remove any kinks or twists. The pieces are cut to the appropriate size and shape. In some cases, pieces may be put on a machine that rolls them and welds the seam. The ends are passed under a crimping machine and the pieces are moved to the finishing station.
• At the finishing station, holes are drilled in the metal parts at specific places as required by the windmill design. The parts may also be painted or coated before being arranged in the final windmill kit.

Making the gearbox

• The gearbox is an intricate assembly made up of various gears, axles, rotors, and wheels. The parts are die cast and assembled by hand. The are placed in an weather resistant housing that is designed to accommodate the gearbox parts and the attached wheel and tail assembly.

Making the fan

• The fan is made up of a metal rim with slightly curved blades attached. The rim is produced on a machine that rolls steel strips into circular hoops. A hole is drilled in both ends, and they are connected with a small clamp and screw after the fan blades are attached. A center axle is then connected to the rim and attached with small steel spokes. A typical design will have five pairs of spokes attached a evenly spaced intervals along the rim.
• The fan blades and tail are cut from pieces of sheet metal. The blades are then run through a machine that gives them a slight curve. They are attached to the metal rim with small bolts and metal clamps. They are attached in such a way that they can be raised or lowered depending on the wind conditions.

Preparing the site

• Finding and preparing the construction site is a crucial step in creating a functional windmill. First, an area with a prevailing wind of at least 15 mph (24 km/hr) is needed. Then the area needs to be cleared of trees and other structures that may block wind. In some cases, a dirt mound or concrete base is erected to raise the windmill off the surface to catch more wind.

Final assembly

• The parts of the main body are connected first. They are bolted together on the ground and then raised up vertically. The outer poles are joined with the connecting rods. Clamps are bolted at each joint for stability. After the tower is raised it is loosely bolted to the solid base. Next stay wires are strung from the frame down to the ground and attached to tensioners and ground anchors. When the structure is level, the bolts are tightened and the structure integrity is tested. In some cases a ladder is built into the frame design to allow access to the fan on top which makes cleaning an maintenance easier.
• The fan wheel, gearbox, and main shaft are next attached. The gearbox is first clamped and bolted to the top of the tower. The main shaft is then inserted into the bottom of the gearbox. Next, the fan and its attached axle are connected to the gearbox. Finally, the tail section is attached to the gearbox. The pump is then hooked up to the main shaft and the windmill is operational.

Quality Control

Various tests may be done to ensure that each part of the windmill meets the specifications laid out in the design phase. The most basic of these are simple visual inspections. These will catch most of the obvious production flaws. Since windmills are erected by hand, the quality of each part goes through an additional visual inspection. The quality of workmanship that goes into construction of the windmill will be primarily responsible for the quality of the finished product. To ensure that it remains efficient during operation, regular maintenance checks are necessary.

The Future

Windmills have changed little over the last hundred years. In fact, one basic design conceived in the 1870s is still sold today. The major improvements have come in the types of materials used in construction. This trend will likely continue in future windmill products. However, the future of harnessing wind power is not in traditional windmills at all. The United States government has spent millions of dollars researching and developing wind turbines for electricity generation. In California, numerous wind farms are already in operation. Various other states and cities have plans for creating similar wind farms. In the future, wind power promises to be an environmentally friendly substitute for fossil fuels.

Where to Learn More

Books

Baker, T. Lindsay. North American Windmill Manufacturers' Trade Literature. University of Oklahoma Press, 1998.

Clegg, Alan John. Windmills. Horseshoe Publications, 1995.

Hills, Richard L. Power from Wind: A History of Windmill Technology. Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Hooker, Jeremy. In Praise Of Windmills. Circle Press Pubns, 1990.

Watts, Martin. Water and Wind Power. Shire Publications, 2000.

[Article by: Perry Romanowski]

For more information on windmill, visit Britannica.com.

A large machine in which the wind acts on a number of vanes or blades, rotating them about an axis, thereby producing mechanical power; once widely used for grinding grain, sawing timber, and pumping water. The earliest windmills in America (similar to those in the Netherlands) had four very large, slowly moving blades that were cloth-covered, and required the constant attendance of an operator. In 1854, a patent was issued for an entirely new type of windmill, having a large number of small blades, which was self-regulating and could operate without human intervention; this feature greatly increased its practical application, especially for pumping water. In the latter part of the 20th century, large two-bladed windmills have been assembled in large groups called “farms” for the environment-friendly generation of electrical power.

In the seventeenth century windmills stood in what are now New York and northern New Jersey, but they did not become a feature of American life until after the Civil War, and then generally in the western United States. The occupation of lands beyond the belt of regular rain, springs, streams, and shallow underground water tapped by hand-dug wells made windmills a necessity. Well-drilling machinery and practical mills made their use possible. Popularized in the 1870s, windmills came to dot the Prairie states and the rough, arid, or semiarid lands beyond. They provided a way, before the invention of the gasoline engine, to supply water for personal and agricultural use.

The windmill became common only after barbed wire had made the control of waterings by private owners possible. It turned tens of millions of acres of waterless land into farms. It made garden patches and shade and fruit trees possible, even during the most parching droughts. It also brought running water into homes.

Nonetheless, the use of windmills to provide water in dry western states has not been an unmitigated good. For instance, since the 1940s, farmers from northern Texas to southern South Dakota have depended on water pumped from the Ogallala Aquifer to irrigate their crops. Although this massive subterranean aquifer is the largest in the world, those who rely on it are consuming its water at a faster rate than the aquifer can recharge it. Therefore, this practice is not sustainable. Calling the transformation of arid territory into farms "land reclamation" falsely implies that the so-called Great American Desert served no purpose before irrigation. The fact that an area does not easily support humans and their preferred crops does not render it worthless. A more sustainable use for windmills is in the production of electricity from wind power, an area in which Denmark excelled during the early 2000s.

Bibliography

Hills, Richard Leslie. Power from Wind: A History of Windmill Technology. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

MacDonnell, Lawrence J. From Reclamation to Sustainability: Water, Agriculture, and the Environment in the American West. Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1999.

Opie, John. Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land. 2d ed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000.

Rowley, William D. Reclaiming the Arid West: The Career of Francis G. Newlands. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.

A Dutch tower windmill, sporting sails, surrounded by tulips

A windmill is a machine designed to convert the energy of the wind into more useful forms using rotating blades. The term also refers to the structure it is commonly built on. In much of Europe, windmills served to grind grain, later applications include pumping water.

History

Hero's wind-powered organ (reconstruction)

A windwheel operating an organ is described as early as the 1st century AD by Hero of Alexandria, marking probably the first instance of a wind powering machine in history.^[1][2] Windmills were first built in Sistan, Afghanistan, sometime between the 7th century and 9th century, as described by Muslim geographers. These were verticle axle windmills, which had long vertical shafts with rectangle shaped blades. The first windmill may have been constructed as early as the time of the second Rashidun caliph Umar (634-644 AD), though some argue that this account may have been a 10th century amendment. Made of six to twelve sails covered in reed matting or cloth material, these windmills were used to grind corn and draw up water, and used in the gristmilling and sugarcane industries.

Horizontal axle windmills

A fixed windmill typical of the Cyclades Islands

Fixed windmills, oriented to the prevailing wind were, for example, extensively used in the Cyclades islands of Greece. The economies of power and transport allowed the use of these 'offshore' mills for grinding grain transported from the mainland and flour returned. A 1/10th share of the flour was paid to the miller in return for his service. This type would mount triangular sails when in operation.

In North Western Europe, the horizontal-shaft or vertical windmill (so called due to the dimension of the movement of its blades) dates from the last quarter of the 12th century in the triangle of northern France, eastern England and Flanders. These earliest mills were used to grind cereals. The evidence at present is that the earliest type was the post mill, so named because of the large upright post on which the mill's main structure (the "body" or "buck") is balanced. By mounting the body this way, the mill is able to rotate to face the (variable) wind direction; an essential requirement for windmills to operate economically in North-Western Europe, where wind directions are various. By the end of the thirteenth century the masonry tower mill, on which only the timber cap rotated rather than the whole body of the mill, had been introduced. Due to the fact that only the cap of the tower mill needed to be turned the main structure could be made much taller, allowing the blades to be made longer, which enabled them to provide useful work even in low winds. Windmills were often built atop castle towers or city walls, and were a unique part of a number of fortifications in New France, such as at Fort Senneville.

The familiar lattice style of windmill blades allowed the miller to attach cloth sails to the blades (while applying a brake). Trimming the sails allowed the windmill to turn at near the optimal speed in a large range of wind velocities.

Upminster (Essex, UK) Windmill in June 2006; a smock mill - before it lost one of its sails in an early 2007 storm.

The fantail, a small windmill mounted at right angles to the main sails which automatically turns the heavy cap and main sails into the wind, was invented in England in 1745. The smock mill is a later variation of the tower mill, constructed of timber and originally developed in the sixteenth century for land drainage. With some subsequent development mills became versatile in windy regions for all kind of industry, most notably grain grinding mills, sawmills (late 16th century), threshing, and, by applying scoop wheels, Archimedes' screws, and piston pumps, pumping water either for land drainage or for water supply. In 1807, William Cubitt invented a new type of sail, known there on as patent sails, that could be regulated whilst moving and became the basis of self-regulating sails, which avoided the constant supervision that had been required up till then.

With the industrial revolution, the importance of windmills as primary industrial energy source was replaced by steam and internal combustion engines. Polder mills were replaced by steam, or diesel engines. The industrial revolution and increased use of Steam and later Diesel power however had a lesser effect on the Mills of the Norfolk Broads in the United Kingdom, these being so isolated (on extensive uninhabitable marshland), therefore some of these mills continued use as drainage pumps till as late as 1959. More recently historic windmills have been preserved for their historic value, in some cases as static exhibits when the antique machinery is too fragile to put in motion, and in other cases as fully working mills.

See Flood control in the Netherlands for use of windmills in land reclamation in the Netherlands.

In Canada and the United States

Farm windmill, Sheridan County, Kansas, USA, 1939.

Windmills feature uniquely in the history of New France, particularly in Canada, where they were used as strong points in fortifications.^[3] Prior to the 1690 Battle of Québec, the strong point of the city's landward defenses was a windmill called Mont-Carmel, where a three-gun battery was in place.^[3] At Fort Senneville, a large stone windmill was built on a hill by late 1686, doubling as a watch tower.^[4] This windmill was like no other in New France, with thick walls, square loopholes for muskets, with machicolation at the top for pouring lethally hot liquids and rocks onto attackers.^[4] This helped make it the "most substantial castle-like fort" near Montréal.^[5]

In the United States, the development of the water-pumping windmill was the major factor in allowing the farming and ranching of vast areas of North America, which were otherwise devoid of readily accessible water. They contributed to the expansion of rail transport systems throughout the world, by pumping water from wells to supply the needs of the steam locomotives of those early times. Two builders were the Eclipse Model of Windmill (which was later bought by Fairbanks-Morse) and Aeromotor.They are still used today for the same purpose in some areas of the world where a connection to electric power lines is not a realistic option.^[6]

The multi-bladed wind turbine atop a lattice tower made of wood or steel was, for many years, a fixture of the landscape throughout rural America. These mills, made by a variety of manufacturers, featured a large number of blades so that they would turn slowly with considerable torque in low winds and be self regulating in high winds. A tower-top gearbox and crankshaft converted the rotary motion into reciprocating strokes carried downward through a rod to the pump cylinder below.

Windmills and related equipment are still manufactured and installed today on farms and ranches, usually in remote parts of the western United States where electric power is not readily available. The arrival of electricity in rural areas, brought by the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) in the 1930s through 1950s, contributed to the decline in the use of windmills in the US. Today, the increases in energy prices and the expense of replacing electric pumps has led to an increase in the repair, restoration and installation of new windmills.

Modern windmills

Main article: Wind turbine

The most modern generations of windmills are more properly called wind turbines, or wind generators, and are primarily used to generate electric power. Modern windmills are designed to convert the energy of the wind into electricity. The largest wind turbines can generate up to 6MW of power (for comparison a modern fossil fuel power plant generates between 500 and 1,300MW).

With increasing environmental concern, and approaching limits to fossil fuel consumption, wind power has regained interest as a renewable energy source.

Windpumps

Windpumps similar to this one near Winburg are to be found on remote farms all over South Africa.

A windpump is a type of windmill used for pumping water from a well or draining land.

Windpumps of the type pictured are used extensively in Southern Africa and Australia and on farms and ranches in the central plains of the United States. In South Africa and Namibia thousands of windpumps are still operating. These are mostly used to provide water for human use as well as drinking water for large sheep stocks.

Kenya has also benefited from the Africa development of windpump technologies. At the end of the 70s, the UK NGO Intermediate Technology Development Group provided engineering support to the Kenyan company Bobs Harries Engineering Ltd for the development of the Kijito windpumps. Nowadays Bobs Harries Engineering Ltd is still manufacturing the Kijito windpumps and more than 300 Kijito windpumps are operating in the whole of East Africa.

Brograve Mill, UK. An example of the derelict state of many Broadland Windpumps

The Netherlands is well known for its windmills. Most of these iconic structures situated along the edge of polders are actually windpumps, designed to drain the land. These are particularly important as much of the country lies below sea level.

Many windpumps were built in The Broads, of East Anglia in the United Kingdom for the draining of land. They have since been mostly replaced by electric power, many of these windpumps still remain, mainly in a derelict state, however some have been restored.

On US farms, particularly in the Midwest, windpumps of the type pictured were used to pump water from farm wells for cattle. Today this is done primarily by electric pumps, and only a few windpumps survive as unused relics of an environmentally sustainable technology.

Windmills in culture and literature

Spanish windmills at La Mancha.

Miguel de Cervantes' book Don Quixote de La Mancha, which helped cement the modern Spanish language and is regarded as one of the greatest works of fiction ever published^[7], features an iconic scene in which Don Quixote attacks windmills that he believes to be ferocious giants. This gave international fame to La Mancha and its windmills, and is the origin of the phrase "tilting at windmills", to describe an act of futility.

The Windmill also plays an important role in Animal Farm, a book by George Orwell. In the book, an allegory of the Russian Revolution and the subsequent early Soviet Union, the effort invested construction of a windmill is provided by the animals in the hope of reduced manual labour and increased living standards.

Footnotes

References

• Ahmad Y Hassan, Donald Routledge Hill (1986). Islamic Technology: An illustrated history. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-42239-6.
• Chartrand, French Fortresses in North America 1535–1763: Québec, Montréal, Louisbourg and New Orleans.
• Dietrich Lohrmann, "Von der östlichen zur westlichen Windmühle", Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, Vol. 77, Issue 1 (1995)
• A.G. Drachmann, "Heron's Windmill", Centaurus, 7 (1961).
• Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2, Mechanical Engineering. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd.

Further reading

• A.G. Drachmann: "Heron's Windmill," Centaurus, 7 (1961), pp. 145-151
• Hugh Pembroke Vowles: "An Enquiry into Origins of the Windmill", Journal of the Newcomen Society, Vol. 11 (1930-31)

See also

• Renewable energy
• Land reclamation
• List of windmills
• watermill
• tension leg platform
• wind generator
• Don Quixote
• Molinology
• The International Molinological Society
• klopotec

Gallery

Muttons Mill, one of the many drainage windpumps on the Norfolk Broads (United Kingdom)	Pitstone Windmill, believed to be the oldest windmill in the British Isles	Windmills of Western Siberia, taken by Prokudin-Gorskii, c. 1910	Original seventeenth century wooden windmill, Gettlinge, Öland, Sweden.
The windmills of Kinderdijk, the Netherlands	Another windmill near Kinderdijk, The Netherlands	Double windmill and common Aeromotor windmill in Texas	Wind pump in Argentina.
The middle-18th-century windmill of Nesebar, Bulgaria	Windmill near Tés	Weybourne Windmill, Norfolk, England	A Midwestern wind pump in Arlington, Indiana. The mechanism connecting the wheel to the pump is missing.
A modern windmill in Sweden.	A Windmill at the National Ranching Heritage Center	An antique functioning windmill and a cart for transporting water at the National Ranching Heritage Center	A Kijito windpump being maintained by BHEL team nearby Nairobi, Kenya
More than 20 windmills on display in the museum at Loeriesfontein, in the Northern Cape, South Africa.	An old example of an "SA Climax" at Loeriesfontein; still made and thousands in use in South Africa.	Modern wind turbine in Aalborg, Denmark	Windmill near Lund, Skåne County, Sweden
Windmills at the former Bethlehem Steel plant Lackawanna, New York	12 m windmill with rotational sails in the Osijek, Croatia	Don Quixote and Sancho Panza after an unsuccessful attack on a windmill by Gustave Doré.	Typical Estonian islands windmill in Koguva, from back side.

External links

• Windmills at Windmill World
• The International Molinological Society (TIMS)
• All About The American Water Pumping Windmill
• Danish Wind Industry Association
• Mill database with over 15000 mills from all over Europe
• Norfolk Mills
• Britannica
• Renewable energy: Windmills at the Open Directory Project
• 1st English Post Windmill, Virginia
• Windmill Weekend
• Poldaw Windpumps, intended principally for applications in developing countries.

History links

• Architecture: Windmills at the Open Directory Project
• Windmillers' Gazette
• History of the Traditional American Farm Windmill
• windmillworld: history
• American Wind Power Center - An American water pumping windmill museum in Lubbock, Texas USA.
• Shattuck Windmill Museum Thirty-nine water pumping windmills used on the plains; located in Shattuck, Oklahoma
• Illinois Windmills--history and archives for the Dutch windmills in the state.
• How to construct a Windmill

Theory

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Windmill

• Wind Power and Windmillspdc:Windbump

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - vindmølle, vejrmølle, helikopter
v. intr. - flyve med helikopter
v. tr. - få til at dreje som en vindmølle

Nederlands (Dutch)
windmolen

Français (French)
n. - moulin à vent
v. intr. - tourner avec la force du passage du courant atmosphérique (une hélice d'avion)
v. tr. - faire tourner avec la force du passage du courant atmosphérique (une hélice d'avion)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Windmühle, Windrädchen
v. - eine Windmühle bewegen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ανεμόμυλος

Italiano (Italian)
mulino a vento, mulinello

idioms:

• tilt at windmills    combattere contro mulini a vento

Português (Portuguese)
n. - moinho de vento (m)

idioms:

• tilt at windmills    lutar contra inimigos imaginários

Русский (Russian)
ветряная мельница, ветродвигатель

idioms:

• tilt at windmills    сражаться с ветряными мельницами

Español (Spanish)
n. - molino de viento, molinillo
v. intr. - mover los brazos como las aspas de un molino
v. tr. - hacer mover los brazos como las aspas de un molino

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - väderkvarn

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
风车, 旋转玩具, 风车房, 作风车般旋转, 使旋转

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 風車, 旋轉玩具, 風車房
v. intr. - 作風車般旋轉
v. tr. - 使旋轉

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 풍차, 헬리콥터
v. intr. - 풍차의 바람개비 등을 암시하며 동그라미를 그리다
v. tr. - 풍차의 바람개비 등을 암시하며 동그라미를 그리다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 風車, ヘリコプター
v. - 風車のように回す, 気流の力で回す

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) الطاحونه الهوائيه, دولاب الطاحونه الهوائيه, الحوامه, عدو وهمي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮טחנת-רוח, גלגילון רוח‬
v. intr. - ‮התנועע ככנפי טחנת-רוח‬
v. tr. - ‮התנועע ככנפי טחנת-רוח‬

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