[OE. westwind, = OS., MLG., MDu., G. westwind, WFris. westewyn, NFris. wāstwinj. OE. had also westanwind = ON. vestanvindr (Norw. vestan-, Da. vestenvind), MHG. westenwint.] 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].
Hence West-winded, West-windy adjs.
1851. G. W. Curtis, Nile Notes, xliv. 22. That west-winded, rose-odoured street.
1850. Hawthorne, Amer. Note-bks. (1883), 379. It being a bright, westwindy, bracing day.
