Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The west wind.
  • noun A gentle breeze.
  • noun Any of various soft light fabrics, yarns, or garments, especially a lightweight, checked gingham fabric.
  • noun Something that is airy, insubstantial, or passing.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The west wind; poetically, any soft, mild, gentle breeze.
  • noun In entomology, a butterfly of the genus Zephyrus.
  • noun A trade-name for a textile fabric or yarn, very fine and light of its kind, and for some other things of similar qualities: chiefly in attributive use: as, zephyr worsted; zephyr crackers (that is, biscuits).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The west wind; poetically, any soft, gentle breeze.
  • noun a thin kind of cassimere made in Belgium; also, a waterproof fabric of wool.
  • noun a kind of thin, light, embroidered shawl made of worsted and cotton.
  • noun a fine, soft kind of yarn or worsted, -- used for knitting and embroidery.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a light wind from the west
  • noun any light refreshing wind; a gentle breeze
  • noun any thing of fine, soft, or light quality, especially fabric

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (Greek mythology) the Greek god of the west wind
  • noun a slight wind (usually refreshing)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English Zephirus, Zephyrus, from Latin Zephyrus, from Greek Zephuros.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek Ζέφυρος (Zephuros, "westerly wind")

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Examples

  • Surges of energy, kaleidoscopic sunlight through the leaves, the soft breeze that makes me want to say the word "zephyr" -- this mindless simplicity can be called happiness.

    Bella Tuscany: Summary and book reviews of Bella Tuscany by Frances Mayes. 1999

  • With these nine figures, and with the sign 0 which the Arabs call zephyr, any number whatsoever is written, as will be demonstrated.

    HERE’S LOOKING AT EUCLID Alex Bellos 2010

  • With these nine figures, and with the sign 0 which the Arabs call zephyr, any number whatsoever is written, as will be demonstrated.

    HERE’S LOOKING AT EUCLID Alex Bellos 2010

  • With these nine figures, and with the sign 0 which the Arabs call zephyr, any number whatsoever is written, as will be demonstrated.

    HERE’S LOOKING AT EUCLID Alex Bellos 2010

  • Another thing they've talked about putting into place is a software program they're calling zephyr which will allow parents to see if their child has a MySpace profile and see what age their child is claiming to be.

    CNN Transcript Jan 29, 2007 2007

  • The software called zephyr (ph) will be available this summer.

    CNN Transcript Jan 18, 2007 2007

  • This is what happened after the convention of the blackbirds: A moaning south wind brought rain; a southwest wind turned the rain to snow; what is called a zephyr, out of the west, drifted the snow; a north wind sent the mercury far below freezing.

    The Complete Project Gutenberg Writings of Charles Dudley Warner Charles Dudley Warner 1864

  • This is what happened after the convention of the blackbirds: A moaning south wind brought rain; a southwest wind turned the rain to snow; what is called a zephyr, out of the west, drifted the snow; a north wind sent the mercury far below freezing.

    How Spring Came in New England Charles Dudley Warner 1864

  • He's protecting -- or stealing -- a really, really, really neat battery (yes: a battery) called the zephyr, which was designed by a supergenius young man named Simon (Paul Dano).

    Baltimore City Paper 2010

  • Today he wanted me to spell "zephyr" and see how many points that would be on a triple-word.

    Day in the Life of an Idiot lyda222 2008

Comments

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  • definition: a soft warm breeze from the west ;

    any of various lightweight fabrics and articles of clothing, like shawl

    Also see:

    BREEZE, GALE, GUST, BLAST, TORNADO, WATERSPOUT, TWISTER, SQUALL, HURRICANE, WHIRLWIND, CYCLONE, TYPHOON,FAVONIAN

    January 1, 2007

  • zephyr is the Greek equivalent of the Roman favonius

    March 26, 2007

  • I'd like it if you had a section for "cultural usage" or something like that. When I think of "zephyr" I'm always reminded of the episode of The Twilight Zone titled "The Mighty Casey" in which a scientist creates a robot to pitch for a fictional baseball team called the Hoboken Zephyrs.

    August 3, 2009

  • I move myself on the sofa - and a zephyr from the direction of the minor fans my cheek.(ONLINE DICTIONARY)

    September 27, 2010

  • is how gums and bliss travel

    February 1, 2011