A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

white as a sheet
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widely open doors of the empty auditorium, frantically busy
stage crews, and the fully powered-up lighting.
widow’s man • widow-man
widow’s man —(hist.) a fictitious seaman on a ship’s papers,
whose pay was credited to a widows’ pension fund: I went
everywhere about the ship…. At last, one of them answered
that it was no use looking for him as Cheeks was a widow’s
man.
widow-man —a widower: Her father came here soon after
she was born, a widow-man with only her.
win over someone • win someone over
win over someone —
1
. (also: win out over someone) prevail
upon a person in a contest, etc.: In New Hampshire, pro-life
Congressman John Sununu won over his pro-abortion oppo-
nent. 2. win smb.’s favor: The “new economic regime” is
dressed up in anti-capitalist garb to make it capable of winning
over the masses.
win someone over — = win over someone 2: She didn’t like me
at first, but I was soon able to win her over.
wind-break • wind-breaker
wind-break —a clump of trees, fence, etc. which gives pro-
tection against the wind: The pine trees acted as a wind-break
for the solitary house set a hundred yards lower down.
Note: 
The expression does not correlate in meaning with the
compound wind-broken—(also: broken-winded) used of a horse
that has impaired breathing: The road was climbing fairly
steadily now, and Paddy had fallen behind, staggering and
wheezing like a wind-broken horse.
wind-breaker —
1
. (U.S.) a light waterproof jacket : You
might need a wind breaker for the rain; although, most times
we were encouraged to be inside during the rains. 2. = wind-
break: The advantage of a dome over the roll-off roof obser-
vatory is that the dome acts as a wind breaker for the telescope.