Weather

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈwɛðɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɛðə(r)
• Homophones: wether, whether (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Origin

From Middle English, from Old English weder, from Proto-Germanic *wedrą, from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰrom (=*we-dʰrom). Cognate with West Frisian waar, Dutch weer, Low German Weder, German Wetter, Danish vejr, Swedish väder; also more distantly related to Russian вёдро (vyodro, "fair weather") and perhaps Albanian vrëndë ("light rain").

Full definition of weather

Noun

1. The short term state of the atmosphere at a specific time and place, including the temperature, humidity, cloud cover, precipitation, wind, etc.
2. Unpleasant or destructive atmospheric conditions, and their effects.Wooden garden furniture must be well oiled as it is continuously exposed to weather.
3. (nautical) The direction from which the wind is blowing; used attributively to indicate the windward side.
• 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 3:One complained of a bad cold in his head, upon which Jonah mixed him a pitch-like potion of gin and molasses, which he swore was a sovereign cure for all colds and catarrhs whatsoever, never mind of how long standing, or whether caught off the coast of Labrador, or on the weather side of an ice-island.
4. (countable, figuratively) A situation.
5. (obsolete) A storm; a tempest.
• DrydenWhat gusts of weather from that gathering cloud
  My thoughts presage!
6. (obsolete) A light shower of rain.

Synonyms

• (state of the atmosphere) meteorology
• (windward side) weatherboard

Derived terms

Verb

1. To expose to the weather, or show the effects of such exposure, or to withstand such effects.
• H. MillerThe organisms ... seem indestructible, while the hard matrix in which they are embedded has weathered from around them.
• Spensereagle soaring through his wide empire of the air
  To weather his broad sails.
2. (by extension) To sustain the trying effect of; to bear up against and overcome; to endure; to resist.
• LongfellowFor I can weather the roughest gale.
• F. W. RobertsonYou will weather the difficulties yet.
3. (nautical) To pass to windward in a vessel, especially to beat 'round.to weather a cape; to weather another ship
4. (nautical) To endure or survive an event or action without undue damage.Joshua weathered a collision with a freighter near South Africa.
5. (falconry) To place (a hawk) unhooded in the open air.

Derived terms

Anagrams

• weareth, whate'er, wheater, whereat, wreathe