"whistle in the wind" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "whistles in the wind",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "whistling in the wind",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "whistled in the wind",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "whistled in the wind",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "whistle in the wind (third-person singular simple present whistles in the wind, present participle whistling in the wind, simple past and past participle whistled in the wind)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2009 February 22, Simon Caulkin, “However good the pay, it doesn't buy results”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 2018-07-29",
          "text": "[T]hey are expending more and more effort on trying to get right something that cannot, and should not, be done in the first place. […] Endless exhortations to \"do it better\" are, to put it politely, whistling in the wind.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014 January 21, “Don't whistle in the wind?”, in DLH Marketing, UK, retrieved 2018-07-29",
          "text": "It doesn’t matter how strong your USP is or how powerful your value proposition, if the message isn’t reaching the right people you're whistling in the wind.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018 July 9, Farouk Cassim, \"Let’s do much more than whistling in the wind\", voices360.com (South Africa) (retrieved 29 July 2018)",
          "text": "[E]veryone is doing no more than whistling powerlessly in the wind."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To attempt something that is futile; to say something that is not heeded."
      ],
      "id": "en-whistle_in_the_wind-en-verb-uFoFZjwh",
      "links": [
        [
          "futile",
          "futile"
        ],
        [
          "heed",
          "heed"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(especially UK, idiomatic) To attempt something that is futile; to say something that is not heeded."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "whistle Dixie"
        },
        {
          "word": "whistle down the wind"
        },
        {
          "word": "whistle in the dark"
        },
        {
          "word": "whistle past the graveyard"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "piss in the wind"
        },
        {
          "word": "piss up a rope"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "especially",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "to attempt something that is futile",
          "word": "ein Windei ausbrüten"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "to attempt something that is futile",
          "word": "gegen Windmühlen kämpfen"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "to say something that is not heeded",
          "word": "mit der Wand reden"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-whistle in the wind.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/3e/En-au-whistle_in_the_wind.ogg/En-au-whistle_in_the_wind.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/En-au-whistle_in_the_wind.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "whistle in the wind"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "whistles in the wind",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "whistling in the wind",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "whistled in the wind",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "whistled in the wind",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "whistle in the wind (third-person singular simple present whistles in the wind, present participle whistling in the wind, simple past and past participle whistled in the wind)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "whistle Dixie"
    },
    {
      "word": "whistle down the wind"
    },
    {
      "word": "whistle in the dark"
    },
    {
      "word": "whistle past the graveyard"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2009 February 22, Simon Caulkin, “However good the pay, it doesn't buy results”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 2018-07-29",
          "text": "[T]hey are expending more and more effort on trying to get right something that cannot, and should not, be done in the first place. […] Endless exhortations to \"do it better\" are, to put it politely, whistling in the wind.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014 January 21, “Don't whistle in the wind?”, in DLH Marketing, UK, retrieved 2018-07-29",
          "text": "It doesn’t matter how strong your USP is or how powerful your value proposition, if the message isn’t reaching the right people you're whistling in the wind.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018 July 9, Farouk Cassim, \"Let’s do much more than whistling in the wind\", voices360.com (South Africa) (retrieved 29 July 2018)",
          "text": "[E]veryone is doing no more than whistling powerlessly in the wind."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To attempt something that is futile; to say something that is not heeded."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "futile",
          "futile"
        ],
        [
          "heed",
          "heed"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(especially UK, idiomatic) To attempt something that is futile; to say something that is not heeded."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "especially",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-whistle in the wind.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/3e/En-au-whistle_in_the_wind.ogg/En-au-whistle_in_the_wind.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/En-au-whistle_in_the_wind.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "piss in the wind"
    },
    {
      "word": "piss up a rope"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "to attempt something that is futile",
      "word": "ein Windei ausbrüten"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "to attempt something that is futile",
      "word": "gegen Windmühlen kämpfen"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "to say something that is not heeded",
      "word": "mit der Wand reden"
    }
  ],
  "word": "whistle in the wind"
}