wind-break

See also: windbreak

English

Noun

wind-break (plural wind-breaks)

1. Alternative spelling of windbreak
   • 1950 August, “The Rimutaka Incline and Deviation, New Zealand”, in Railway Magazine, page 547:

     Massive timber wind-breaks were erected to protect the railway in particularly exposed locations.

Verb

wind-break (third-person singular simple present wind-breaks, present participle wind-breaking, simple past wind-broke, past participle wind-broken)

1. (transitive) To break the wind of; to cause to lose breath; to exhaust.
   • c. 1635–1636 (date written), Iohn Ford [i.e., John Ford], The Fancies, Chast and Noble: […], London: […] E[lizabeth] P[urslowe] for Henry Seile, […], published 1638, →OCLC, Act II, page 26:

     'Tvvould vvind-breake a moyle, or a ring'd mare, to vie burthens vvith her.

   • 1923, Robert Frost, “An Empty Threat”, in New Hampshire […], New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, page 65:

     It’s not men by some mistake? / No, / There’s not a soul / For a wind-break / Between me and the North Pole— / Except always John-Joe, / My French Indian Esquimaux, […]

Anagrams

• break wind, break-wind, breakwind