Meaning
A renewed surge of energy or capacity to keep going, arriving after fatigue, flagging enthusiasm, or a stall in progress. Though it began as a runner's term for breathing becoming easier again during hard exertion, it is now used freely of work, projects, campaigns, and careers: anything that seemed exhausted can be said to get one. Neutral register, at home in sport, work, and creative contexts alike. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The phrase rests on the old sense of 'wind' as breath or breathing, which Etymonline dates to the early 14th century. The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest evidence for the noun 'second wind' is from 1806, in the writing of John Jackson, describing the physiological phenomenon in which breathing eases after exhaustion during sustained exertion. Etymonline dates the figurative sense to by 1830 and calls it an image drawn from the sport of hunting. The expression names a real effect familiar to endurance athletes, and its extension to any fresh burst of energy or momentum followed naturally as the metaphor spread beyond sport.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- catch a second wind
- find a second wind
- get a second wind
- one's second wind
Usage Examples
- Somewhere past the thirtieth kilometre she found her second wind and began passing the runners ahead of her.
- The campaign looked finished until a wave of volunteer support gave it a second wind.
- He was ready to abandon the thesis, but a long weekend of rest gave him a second wind.