DCHP-1 Online

windbreak

• 1 n. anything used as a temporary barrier to break the force of the wind, especially when camping.

  • 1772  (1792)  [In the evening we enclosed the fire with a fence of boughs to keep off the wind. . . .]
  • 1897  The snow was cleared away from the inside of the windbreak. . . .
  • 1908  The nights now became bitterly cold, and there were no more old lodges--only a windbreak made of the canoe and the deerskin.
  • 1930  They drew the sleighs up to form a windbreak. . . .

• 2 n. a row or clump of trees serving as protection against the wind and, often, as a means of preventing soil erosion.

  • 1884  Lesser windbreaks are planted where larger are difficult to establish.
  • 1927  The two-hour run from Halifax to Truro was through country [of] rolling hills and rocky ledges, scattered farms with their wind-breaks of spruce trees. . . .
  • 1964  To protect their fields, many farmers of the Quinte area started planting trees as windbreaks and shelterbelts.