weather vane

or weath·er·vane

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noun

a device, as a rod to which a freely rotating pointer is attached, for indicating the direction of the wind.

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Also called vane, wind vane.

Origin of weather vane

First recorded in 1715–25

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use weather vane in a sentence

Frustrating as regulars find these fair-weather exercise interlopers, they were also all beginners once, he says.
How to Survive the New Year ‘Gympocalypse’|Tim Teeman|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
That ground hold was to stop you flying through weather that could kill you and everyone else aboard.
Annoying Airport Delays Might Prevent You From Becoming the Next AirAsia 8501|Clive Irving|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Did the airline file a flight plan that took account of the weather en route from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore?
Annoying Airport Delays Might Prevent You From Becoming the Next AirAsia 8501|Clive Irving|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
These days weather should never cause a commercial airliner to crash.
Annoying Airport Delays Might Prevent You From Becoming the Next AirAsia 8501|Clive Irving|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST

The pilot asked air-traffic control for permission to climb from 32,000 to 38,000 feet to avoid the bad weather.
Wreckage, Bodies of AirAsia Crash Found|Lennox Samuels|December 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
In the drawing-room things went on much as they always do in country drawing-rooms in the hot weather.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3)|Charles James Wills
Blamed ef I'd lived in a country all my life, ef I wouldn't know better'n to git caught out in such weather's this!
Ramona|Helen Hunt Jackson
An old weather-beaten bear-hunter stepped forward, squirting out his tobacco juice with all imaginable deliberation.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various
That the weather being calm, he rowed round me several times, observed my windows and wire-lattices that defenced them.
Gulliver's Travels|Jonathan Swift
Decomposition sets in rapidly, especially in warm weather, and greatly interferes with all the examinations.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd

British Dictionary definitions for weather vane

weather vane

noun

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

weather vane

or weath·er·vane

Origin of weather vane

Words related to weather vane

How to use weather vane in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for weather vane