Dictionary

zephyrous en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (UK) audio
• /ˈzɛfəɹəs/

Etymology

From zephyr + -ous.

Meanings

1. Like a zephyr.
   • Hither no winds, but zephyrous breaths repair, Soft, as the sighs of love sick virgins are! 1753, Aaron Hill, “Augusta’s Complaint to her Thames”, in The Works of the Late Aaron Hill, esq., 2nd edition, London, published 1754, page 345:
   • And the blossom as scarlet as blood, the single, the starry, the strong, Is the Alpine love that is nurtured in clefts of the toiler’s life,— The love that is sought not in languor nor chanted in zephyrous song, But held in the heart of the storm when the soul has been wed to a wife. 1909, Jessie Mackay, “The Garden of Art”, in Land of the Morning, Christchurch: Whitcombe & Tombs, p:
2. (of a wind) Like a zephyr. ▸ Soft, gentle, refreshing.
   • He used to be impatient of poems about budding flowers and zephyrous breezes. 2002, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 14, in Youth, Vintage, published 2003, page 117:
   • 1800, Frederick Howard, Earl of Carlisle, The Stepmother, London: R.H. Evans, Act V, Scene 1, p. 75, The last night’s tempest was a zephyrous gale, To the rough storm that tears his frame to atoms: …
3. Breezy; blown by a breeze.
   • Green-hatted doormen awaken the eve in statuary-niched yellow lobbies— zephyrous canyons brightlit, gray stone Empire State too small to be God lords it over sweet Macy’s & Seafood City by junkie Grant Hotel— 1966, Allen Ginsberg, “Bayonne Entering N.Y.C.”, in Collected Poems, 1947-1997, Harper Collins:
   • It was March now, the mild March of an early spring. There came new days, zephyrous and sweet. 1915, Henry Sydnor Harrison, chapter 22, in Angela’s Business, Boston: Houghton Mifflin:
4. (of a fabric, qualifier:garment, usually) Light, fine, soft.
   • 1895, “Feminine Affairs” in To-Day (magazine edited by Jerome K. Jerome), Volume 9, Number 111, 21 December, 1895, p. 200, That there will be flying machines before very long seems more than likely, and what deliciously zephyrous and diaphanous costumes will not the milliners devise for airy recreations in the near future!

Forms

Synonyms

zephyrean (Synonyms) · zephyrian (Synonyms)