window

[ win-doh ]

noun

1. an opening in the wall of a building, the side of a vehicle, etc., for the admission of air or light, or both, commonly fitted with a frame in which are set movable sashes containing panes of glass.
2. such an opening with the frame, sashes, and panes of glass, or any other device, by which it is closed.
3. the frame, sashes, and panes of glass, or the like, intended to fit such an opening:

   Finally the builders put in the windows.

4. a windowpane.
5. anything likened to a window in appearance or function, as a transparent section in an envelope, displaying the address.
6. a period of time regarded as highly favorable for initiating or completing something:

   Investors have a window of perhaps six months before interest rates rise.

7. Military. chaff ¹( def 5 ).
8. Geology. fenster.
9. Pharmacology. the drug dosage range that results in a therapeutic effect, a lower dose being insufficient and a higher dose being toxic.
10. Aerospace.
    1. launch window.
    2. a specific area at the outer limits of the earth's atmosphere through which a spacecraft must reenter to arrive safely at its planned destination.
11. Computers. a section of a display screen that can be created for viewing information from another part of a file or from another file:

    The split screen feature enables a user to create two or more windows.

verb (used with object)

1. to furnish with a window or windows.
2. Obsolete. to display or put in a window.

window

/ ˈwɪndəʊ /

noun

1. a light framework, made of timber, metal, or plastic, that contains glass or glazed opening frames and is placed in a wall or roof to let in light or air or to see through fenestral
2. an opening in the wall or roof of a building that is provided to let in light or air or to see through
3. See windowpane
   See windowpane
4. the display space in and directly behind a shop window

   the dress in the window

5. any opening or structure resembling a window in function or appearance, such as the transparent area of an envelope revealing an address within
6. an opportunity to see or understand something usually unseen

   a window on the workings of Parliament

7. a period of unbooked time in a diary, schedule, etc
8. See weather window, launch window
   short for launch window weather window
9. See radio window
   physics a region of the spectrum in which a medium transmits electromagnetic radiation See also radio window
10. computing an area of a VDU display that may be manipulated separately from the rest of the display area; typically different files can be displayed simultaneously in different overlapping windows
11. modifier of or relating to a window or windows

    a window ledge

12. out of the window informal.
    out of the window dispensed with; disregarded

verb

1. tr to furnish with or as if with windows

Other Words From

• window·less adjective
• window·y adjective
• un·windowed adjective
• well-windowed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of window¹

1175–1225; Middle English windoge, windowe < Old Norse vindauga, equivalent to vindr wind ¹ + auga eye

Word History and Origins

Origin of window¹

C13: from Old Norse vindauga, from vindr wind ¹+ auga eye ¹

Idioms and Phrases

see out the window .

Example Sentences

If you can’t get outside that often, looking out a window regularly should help.

From Science News For Students

Generally, advertisers’ cancelation amounts increased from 30% to 50%, and the cancelation windows shrunk from 45 to 60 days before a quarter’s start to 30 to 45 days.

From Digiday

Closed stores and empty windows result in emptier sidewalks and streets.

From Voice of San Diego

It took a few gummy bites of the curtain material, allowing me to open the window over its head.

From Fortune

On May 25, he threw a chair through a window at his brother’s house and drove off, hitting several parked vehicles.

From Voice of San Diego

The interior video shows the gunman firing the shot through the window.

From The Daily Beast

I fall back into a dream and then suddenly there is a tapping on the window just above my bed.

From The Daily Beast

In fact, these kinds of advances helped give religion another huge window of opportunity for racial reconciliation in the 1960s.

From The Daily Beast

As it was, The Affair ended its first season last night with me contemplating hurling my television out of the window.

From The Daily Beast

The younger man rolled down his window to receive the approaching Williams “to see what he wanted.”

From The Daily Beast

But at the instant I caught a sight of my counterfeit presentment in a shop window, and veiled my haughty crest.

From Project Gutenberg

She had listened—she had listened intently, looking straight out of the window and without moving.

From Project Gutenberg

The east window in this church has been classed as the A1 of modern painted windows.

From Project Gutenberg

The clerks had not arrived yet, and he beguiled the time by looking out of the staircase window.

From Project Gutenberg

As the window dropped, Ripperda saw the wounded postilion fall on the neck of his horse.

From Project Gutenberg