• (British) IPA: /zɛfə(ɹ)/
• (GA) IPA: /zɛfɚ/

zephyr (plural zephyrs)

1. A light#Adjective|light wind#Noun|wind from the west.

   Synonyms: westerly

   • 1671, R. Bohun, A Discourse Concerning the Origine and Properties of Wind, Oxford: Tho. Bowman, pp. 149-150,

     The Western [winds] have been Counted the mildest, & most Auspicious of all others; and were so highly in favour with the Poets, that they thought them worthy of the Golden Age, and to refresh the Elysian groves. [...] But though the Breathing Zephyrs are so much celebrated in Poems and Romances, and happily were kinder to the delicious countries of Italy, & Greece, yet wee find no lesse malignity in their natures from particular accidents and climats, then what wee have observ’d of other Winds.

2. Any light refreshing wind; a gentle breeze#Noun|breeze.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance)​, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene ii], page 388 ↗, column 2:

     O thou Goddeſſe, / Thou diuine Nature; thou{{sic

   • 1796, J[ohn] G[abriel] Stedman, chapter II, in Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the Wild Coast of South America; […], volume I, London: J[oseph] Johnson, […], and J. Edwards, […], OCLC 13966308 ↗, page 31 ↗:

     The eaſterly or trade winds, which generally blow between the Tropics, are extremely refreſhing to the coaſt of Guiana, between the hours of eight or ten in the morning, and ſix o'clock in the evening, when they ceaſe to operate, and a zephyr is ſcarcely ever heard to whiſper during the night.

   • 1851 November 13, Herman Melville, “The Carpet-bag”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299 ↗, page 10 ↗:

     It [a house] stood on a sharp bleak corner, where that tempestuous wind Euroclydon#English|Euroclydon kept up a worse howling than ever it did about poor Paul's tossed craft. Euroclydon, nevertheless, is a mighty pleasant zephyr to any one in-doors, with his feet on the hob quietly toasting for bed.

3. Anything of fine#Adjective|fine, soft, or light quality, especially fabric.
   • 1895, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “At the Vicarage. Chapter X.”, in The Wonderful Visit (Macmillan’s Colonial Library), London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., OCLC 760967665 ↗, page 39 ↗:

     The world hummed and spun about him. There was a whirling of zephyr skirts, four impassioned faces sweeping towards the open door of the passage that ran through the vicarage. He felt his position went with them.

• French: zéphyr
• German: Zephir
• Italian: zefiro, (less used) zeffiro
• Portuguese: zéfiro
• Russian: зефи́р
• Spanish: céfiro

• French: zéphyr
• German: Zephir
• Italian: zefir, (less used) zefiro
• Russian: зефи́р

zephyr (zephyrs, present participle zephyring; past and past participle zephyred)

1. (intransitive, poetic) To blow or move like a zephyr, or light breeze.
   • 1879, Robert Stephen Hawker, “An Inscription for an Aged Oak” in The Poetical Works, London: The Bodley Head, p. 171,

     There was a time

     When the soft zephyring spring came joyfully,

     Like a young bride, with bloom upon her cheek—

   • 1908, Clarence E. Mulford, The Coming of Hopalong Cassidy, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Chapter 4, p. 60,

     There was a sudden scrambling and thumping overhead and hot exclamations zephyred down to them.

   • 1922, Thomas Hardy, “An Experience”, in Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses, London: Macmillan and Co., […], OCLC 475135 ↗, stanza 2, page 111 ↗:

     But there was a new afflation#English|afflation— / An aura zephyring round, / That care infected not: [...]

2. (transitive, poetic) To blow or blow on gently like a zephyr; to cool or refresh with a gentle breeze.
   • 1849, letter from Leonidas Lent Hamline dated 15 December, 1849, in Walter Clark Palmer, Life and Letters of Leonidas L. Hamline, D.D., New York: Carlton & Porter, 1866, Chapter 15, p. 361,

     He was a fragrant poison, a zephyred pestilence spread through all the city.

   • 1914, Leonard Lanson Cline, untitled sonnet in Poems, Boston: The Poet Lore Company, p. 76,

     Ah, but the skies are joyous in the spring,

     From dawn to dusk exuberantly blue;

     White-tufted oftentimes with clouds that do

     But wanton in heaven’s zephyred merrying!

   • 1914, Juliane Paulsen (pseudonym of Juliane Grace Hansen), “Poppy Fantasy” in And Then Came Spring, Boston: The Gorham Press, p. 49,

     Oh, graciously she led my soul within

     Where ever and forever went a wind

     In zephyred streams of poppies coursing sweet

     About the place, and waves of poppy heat

     About us there.

1. (Greek god) The god of the West Wind.
2. (poetic) The west wind personified.

• Italian: Zefiro
• Portuguese: Zéfiro
• Russian: Зефи́р
• Spanish: Céfiro

• Russian: Зефи́р