Chinook
a member of a formerly numerous North American Indian people originally inhabiting the northern shore of the mouth of the Columbia River and the adjacent territory.
either of the two languages of the Chinook Indians.: Compare Lower Chinook, Upper Chinook.
(lowercase) a warm, dry wind that blows at intervals down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
(lowercase) chinook salmon.
a U.S. Army cargo helicopter in service since 1962 and capable of ferrying 12 tons of supplies and troops.
Words Nearby Chinook
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use Chinook in a sentence
There is no better place than the high mountain streams of Idaho for Chinook to spawn.
The Fight to Save the Salmon | By Brian Bennett/Lapwai, Idaho with Photographs by Kiliii Yüyan | October 18, 2021 | TimeThis year, Denny speared one of the tribe’s three allotted wild Chinook for the season in a stream running through the Sawtooth range.
The Fight to Save the Salmon | By Brian Bennett/Lapwai, Idaho with Photographs by Kiliii Yüyan | October 18, 2021 | TimeThe Chinook is obviously built to withstand all sorts of weather, but the point of this exercise is to be responsible stewards of our novelty coin, and so we must consider all possibilities.
Here’s the hard deadline for fixing the debt ceiling crisis (by minting a $1 trillion coin) | Philip Bump | October 6, 2021 | Washington PostSo we can have the military’s fastest chopper, the Boeing CH-47 Chinook, fueled up and whirring before the courier even starts out the door.
Here’s the hard deadline for fixing the debt ceiling crisis (by minting a $1 trillion coin) | Philip Bump | October 6, 2021 | Washington PostWe can have that Chinook sitting there on that green, with plenty of armed guards to keep our $1 trillion in cash safe.
Here’s the hard deadline for fixing the debt ceiling crisis (by minting a $1 trillion coin) | Philip Bump | October 6, 2021 | Washington Post
The Chinook vibrated with deeper and deeper groans until its twin engines managed to heave up our dead weight.
The note promised to send more pictures “like before,” and included a photograph of a Chinook helicopter unloading supplies.
Exclusive: ‘Pro-Troop’ Charity Pays Off Tea Party Cronies Instead | Kim Barker | August 5, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTChinook For this crowd, a spelling bee is no matter to be joked about.
Fainting, Confusion, Screams: The 9 Best Spelling Bee Stumpers (VIDEO) | Anna Klassen | May 31, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTNext he says a double rotor Chinook landed inside the compound.
Need I add that tum-tum in the Chinook jargon signifies the soul!
Over the Rocky Mountains to Alaska | Charles Warren StoddardHaving made friends, he told me in a mixture of broken English and Chinook some of the old folk lore of his tribe.
Indian Legends of Vancouver Island | Alfred CarmichaelBut few of them speak the English language fluently; they mostly talk French and Chinook jargon.
Early Western Travels 1748-1846, Volume XXX | Joel PalmerThe idea expressed in English by the sentence I came to give it to her is rendered in Chinook by i-n-i-a-l-u-d-am.
Language | Edward SapirThus began and ended our first lesson in the Chinook jargon, and our first experience with a clam bake.
Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail | Ezra Meeker
British Dictionary definitions for chinook (1 of 2)
/ (tʃɪˈnuːk, -ˈnʊk) /
Also called: snow eater a warm dry southwesterly wind blowing down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains
Also called: wet chinook a warm moist wind blowing onto the Washington and Oregon coasts from the sea
Origin of chinook
1British Dictionary definitions for Chinook (2 of 2)
/ (tʃɪˈnuːk, -ˈnʊk) /
plural -nook or -nooks a Native American people of the Pacific coast near the Columbia River
the language of this people, probably forming a separate branch of the Penutian phylum
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
Scientific definitions for chinook
[ shĭ-nuk′, chĭ- ]
A moist, warm wind blowing from the sea in coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest.
A warm, dry wind descending from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, causing a rapid rise in temperature. These winds often melt snow quite rapidly, at times at a rate of up to a foot per hour. See also foehn.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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