Meaning

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks

Categorised in: 135 Phrases coined by William Shakespeare

What's the meaning of the phrase 'Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks'?

From Shakespeare's King Lear, 1605: KING LEAR: Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks! You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts, Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world! Crack nature's moulds, an germens spill at once, That make ingrateful man!

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay - caption

What’s the origin of the phrase ‘Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks’?

From Shakespeare’s King Lear, 1605:

KING LEAR:
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Smite flat the thick rotundity o’ the world!
Crack nature’s moulds, an germens spill at once,
That make ingrateful man!

Historical trend

“winds” in printed material over time

Source: Google Books Ngrams (1800–2020).

180018201840186018801900192019401960198020002020
  • winds