1. Naut. The windward side (of a vessel, etc.).
1399. Langl., Rich. Redeles, IV. 77. Þan lay þe lordis a-lee with laste and with charge,… And warned him wisely of þe wedir-side.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron. Hen. VIII., 21 b. The Caricke was on the wetherside and the Regent on the lye side.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), s.v. Weather, When a ship under sail presents either of her sides to the wind, it is then called the weather-side.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, ii. I stood in the waist on the weather side.
1883. Man. Seamanship for Boys, 3. Salutes on Board Ship. The Starboard side in harbour, and the weather side at sea, is the officers’ side.
2. The side (e.g., of a building, a tree) that is most exposed to injury from weather.
1827. Steuart, Planter’s G. (1828), 136. Most Trees are unequally balanced, and show what is called a ‘weather-side,’ usually to the west and south-west, in this island.
1827. Ann. Reg., Chron., 48/1. Many shepherds … had hair-breadth escapes, and some perished in wearing their flocks from the weather-side of the hills.
1838. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 338/2. On the occasion of repairing the weather side of the tower of the Lady Church, at Munich.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, 96. The weather side of all such mountains as the Andes is the wet side, and the lee side the dry.
fig. 1816. ‘Quiz,’ Grand Master, I. 11. I now am present, Sir, you see, So leave the weather side to me.
