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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. The west wind.
  2. n. A gentle breeze.
  3. n. Any of various soft light fabrics, yarns, or garments.
  4. n. Something that is airy, insubstantial, or passing.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The west wind; poetically, any soft, mild, gentle breeze.
  2. n. In entomology, a butterfly of the genus Zephyrus.
  3. n. 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).

Wiktionary

  1. n. a light wind from the west
  2. n. any light refreshing wind; a gentle breeze
  3. n. any thing of fine, soft, or light quality, especially fabric

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. The west wind; poetically, any soft, gentle breeze.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. (Greek mythology) the Greek god of the west wind
  2. n. a slight wind (usually refreshing)

Etymologies

  1. Middle English Zephirus, Zephyrus, from Latin Zephyrus, from Greek Zephuros.

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.

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

    Simon & Schuster: HERE’S LOOKING AT EUCLID

  • “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

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

    CNN Transcript Jan 18, 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

  • “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

  • “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

  • “The day was cloudless and fine, albeit a Colorado "zephyr" was blowing, and the party, with perhaps the single exception of the horse, felt in fine spirits.”

    Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XVI., December, 1880.

  • “Harley P. Hennage had crossed from the eating-house, and had just reached the porch of the Silver Dollar saloon, when above the whistling of the "zephyr" he heard the muffled reports of three pistol shots.”

    The Long Chance

  • “Donna dismounted, tying Friar Tuck to the "zephyr" by the simple process of dropping the reins over his head, and hurried into the house to prepare her mother's old room for the reception of the wounded man.”

    The Long Chance

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘zephyr’.

Comments

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  • offpost is how gums and bliss travel Feb 1, 2011

  • Charnell mack I move myself on the sofa - and a zephyr from the direction of the minor fans my cheek.(ONLINE DICTIONARY) Sep 27, 2010

  • JohnChaneski 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. Aug 3, 2009

  • seanmeade zephyr is the Greek equivalent of the Roman favonius Mar 26, 2007

  • kalidas 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
    Jan 1, 2007

‘zephyr’ has been looked up 4114 times, loved by 24 people, added to 184 lists, commented on 5 times, and has a Scrabble score of 23.