wind vane
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of wind vane
First recorded in 1715–25
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.
For decades, this state was a reliable wind vane of American politics.
From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2021
The sea's fury wrecked the automatic steering device that Chichester had rigged up by linking a wind vane to the rudder with a series of pulleys.
From Time Magazine Archive
Saint-Gaudens added a flowing cloak of copper sheets, so she could act as a wind vane as well, and up she went on the Garden tower, to twirl on a swivel before the prevailing breeze.
From Time Magazine Archive
Like a wind vane waiting for a gust to come along and spin it round.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
It is difficult to tell from a distance in which direction the arrow of a wind vane points when the arrow lies obliquely to the spectator, or points directly towards or away from him.
From Things To Make by Williams, Archibald
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.
