weather vane

or weath·er·vane

See synonyms for weather vane on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a device, as a rod to which a freely rotating pointer is attached, for indicating the direction of the wind.

Origin of weather vane

1
First recorded in 1715–25

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use weather vane in a sentence

  • Danielle Pletka, head of foreign policy at the American Enterprise Institute, has called Romney a “weather vane.”

    How Romney Is Like Reagan | Peter Beinart | June 20, 2011 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • For the rooster who was always perched on the weather-vane on the barn was up so high and he shone like gold.

    Seven O'Clock Stories | Robert Gordon Anderson
  • It has certainly seen much better days, and is rather a quaint specimen of the genus weather-vane.

  • The weather vane on Squire Bean's barn dazzles so the rooster seems to be shooting gold arrows into the river.

    The Village Watch-Tower | (AKA Kate Douglas Riggs) Kate Douglas Wiggin
  • I painted a flagpole on a barn up in Massachusetts where there was four hundred dollars in gold hidden under the weather-vane.

    Careers of Danger and Daring | Cleveland Moffett

British Dictionary definitions for weather vane

weather vane

noun
  1. a vane designed to indicate the direction in which the wind is blowing

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012