west wind, west-wind
[OE. westwind, = OS., MLG., MDu., G. westwind, WFris. westewyn, NFris. wāstwinj. OE. had also westanwind = ON. vestanvindr (Norw. vestan-, Da. vestenvind), MHG. westenwint.]
a. The (or a) wind blowing from the west. Also with a and pl.
| c 900 Bæda's Hist. v. xix. (1890) 458 Sona þæs þe he on scyp eode..bleow westwind. a 1400 Nominale (Skeat) 567 Vent galerne..west-wynde. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 523/1 West wynde, zephirus. 1495 Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. xi. iii. 386 Fauonius, the Weste wynde arysyth in the Weste. 1535 Coverdale Exod. x. 19 The Lorde turned a maruelous stronge west wynde. 1577 D. Settle Frobisher's Voy. B vij, Within foure dayes..the Northwest and West windes dispersed the yce into the Sea. 1634 Milton Comus 989 And West winds, with musky wing About the cedar'n alleys fling Nard. 1645 Boate Irel. Nat. Hist. (1652) 176 As the West-winds are much more common in Ireland,..than the East. 1715 Pope Iliad. iv. 319 The Cloud condensing as the West-Wind blows. 1819 Wordsw. Sonn. ‘Lone Flower’ 11 Bright jonquils, their odours lavishing On the soft west-wind and his frolic peers. 1892 Kipling Barrack-room Ballads etc. 178 The West Wind called. |
| attrib. 1601 Holland Pliny x. lx. I. 301 Some are of opinion that the wind will engender them: for which cause also they are called Zephyria [i. West-wind-egs]. |
b. (Usu. with capital initials.) One of the four ‘tiles’ or discs called winds in the game of mah-jong; the player who takes this tile at the beginning of the game and sits opposite East Wind, or a player who succeeds him in being so designated.
| 1922 R. E. Lindsell Ma-Cheuk or Mah-Jongg, 13 East discards a West wind. North..exposes a pair of West winds. 1952 M. Steen Phoenix Rising vii. 154 She slid the West Wind on to her ebony rack. 1960 [see east wind b]. 1976 R. C. Bell Discovering Mah-jong 15 The third round is West Wind's round. |
Hence
west-winded,
west-windy adjs.| 1851 G. W. Curtis Nile Notes xliv. 221 That west-winded, rose-odoured street. 1850 Hawthorne Amer. Note-bks. (1883) 379 It being a bright, westwindy, bracing day. |