blustery
Americanadjective
-
characterized by strong, gusty wind.
It's a blustery day, with a stiff westerly whipping across the valley keeping the temperature on the cool side.
-
full of bravado and empty boasts, threats, or protests.
Without these two arrogant, blustery leaders, the two sides would likely have solved their problems and worked things out.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of blustery
Explanation
Use the adjective blustery to describe weather that brings extremely strong gusts of wind. It's much easier to fly a kite on a blustery day than when there's no wind at all. While this word is frequently used for weather — think blustery October days with leaves blowing and people clutching their hats — it can also describe people who act aggressively or confidently but don't follow through. All that blustery talk about your football team's superiority won't mean a thing when they lose badly yet again. The source of blustery is the noun bluster, "loud or indignant talk with little effect," from a Germanic root meaning "blow violently."
Vocabulary lists containing blustery
Coraline
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The Blind Side
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The War That Saved My Life
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The changeable conditions that have dominated the past week will continue into the weekend, with blustery winds coming in off the Atlantic and gales for some western coasts and hills.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
However, for North Sea facing coasts, as an area of low pressure spirals away it will be blustery with locally strong north-westerly winds and early showers.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
It will be unseasonably blustery for western Scotland will gusts here of up to 40-45mph.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
Monday will be a blustery day more widely across the UK, but again it will be southern areas seeing the strongest gusts - generally 30-40mph.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
He was a red-faced, blustery man who intimidated Doha.
From "Finding Junie Kim" by Ellen Oh
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
