tramontana

American  

[trah-muhn-tah-nuh, -tan-uh, trah-mawn-tah-nah] / ˌtrɑ mənˈtɑ nə, -ˈtæn ə, ˌtrɑ mɔnˈtɑ nɑ /

noun

• tramontanas,
  plural
• tramontane
  plural

1. a cold wind from the north or northeast that blows in the western Mediterranean.

2. any north wind issuing from a mountainous region.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• tramontanas
  plural
• tramontane
  plural

Etymology

Origin of tramontana

1605–15; < Italian, noun use of feminine of tramontano tramontane

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tramontana tramontane

The north wind is scarce at this time of the year, but a beautiful tramontana blew during the time we were working out of the Bocca.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 57, No. 351, January 1845 by Various

"What I cannot understand," said Astrardente, muffling his thin throat more closely against the keen bright tramontana wind, "is that such old fellows as Saracinesca should still want to play a part in the world."

From Saracinesca by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford

The tramontana visited it then as now, fever, too, and sudden death.

From Imperial Purple by Edgar Saltus

Exotic plants grow and flourish, sheltered from the bitter tramontana wind.

From Cathedral Cities of Italy by William Wiehe Collins

We should all be ghosts, of course, but the more easily could the sun warm us through in spite of the tramontana.

From Roman Holidays, and Others by William Dean Howells

At the second night's concert, the tramontane brought an unseasonable downpour that soaked the motionless audience to the skin before the concert was called off.

From Time Magazine Archive

Perpignan's tramontane, a strong, cold wind that sweeps along the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean, kept the orchestra grabbing for their music, finally made them clip the sheets to the racks with clothespins.

From Time Magazine Archive

The tramontane winds come down from the Appenines so sharply, that delicate constitutions, particularly those liable to pulmonary complaints, suffer invariably.

From Pencillings by the Way Written During Some Years of Residence and Travel in Europe by N. Parker Willis

Now, half a degree the other way, in the tramontane region north of the Ridges, they found themselves in the presence of a vegetation that spoke of an advance, however minute, towards the pole.

From Toronto of Old by Henry Scadding

It means what there is as yet no precise name for in England, though the practice is as common as in any tramontane country whatever.

From The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 4 by Ernest Hartley Coleridge