foehn

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A warm dry wind coming off the lee slopes of a mountain range, especially off the northern slopes of the Alps.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A warm, dry wind which descends from the upper Alps into the valleys on the north side of the chain of the Alps, from Geneva to Salzburg. Its direction is from the south, less often from the southwest, and it is felt most in the valleys having a general north-and-south trend. It is most common in the autumn and winter, and exerts an important influence upon the meteorological condition of the places subject to it: for example, by rapidly removing the snow in spring, ripening the grapes in autumn, etc. A similar warm, dry wind is recognized in other parts of the world, as on the west coast of Greenland and in New Zealand. The chinook wind of the northwestern United States is a similar phenomenon.

Wiktionary

1. n. A warm dry wind blowing down the side of a mountain in northern and central Europe.
2. n. meteorology A similar wind in any mountainous area.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A warm dry wind that often blows in the northern valleys of the Alps, due to the indraught of a storm center passing over Central Europe. The wind, heated by compression in its descent from the mountains, reaches the base, particularly in winter, dry and warm.
2. n. Any similar wind, as the chinook, in other parts of the world.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a warm dry wind that blows down the northern slopes of the Alps