[for something, such as a road] to turn so that it heads in the direction from whence it came. The road we got lost on wound back and we were not able to reach the lake on time. When we were lost, we found a stream in the woods, but it wound back and did not lead us in the direction we wanted.
To set some clock or counter to an earlier reading: Don't forget to wind your clock back for standard time. When he sold the car, he wound back the odometer to make the car seem newer.