windbreak

See also: wind-break

English

Field windbreaks (1) in North Dakota protect the soil against wind erosion.

Alternative forms

• wind-break, wind break

Etymology

From wind +‎ break.

Noun

windbreak (plural windbreaks)

1. (agriculture) A hedge, fence or row of trees positioned to reduce wind damage to crops.

   Hyponym: shelterbelt

   Coordinate terms: hedgerow, fencerow

2. A sheet or stack of material used to protect people or fire from wind.
   • June 1964, Darrell Huff, Sun-Catching Windbreak Popular Science, Bonnier Corporation, page 112:

     I built my windbreak on a second-story wooden deck, as you can see above, but it would work just as well at ground level.

   • 2000, Darrell Huff, Settlement: A History Of Australian Indigenous Housing, Aboriginal Studies Press, page 19:

     Although Birdibil was warm in his family wungkurr or windbreak that night, lying next to a crackling fire and covered with some paperbark blankets (kawan), he had little sleep.

   • 2008, Paul Memmott, Gunyah, Goondie + Wurley: The Aboriginal Architecture of Australia, University of Queensland Press, page 62:

     A wide range of materials was used for windbreaks, including rigid bark sheets inserted in sand, piles of grass or foliage, and stone walls.

3. The act of breaking wind; flatulence.
   • 1995, Terry Bolin, Rosemary Stanton, Wind Breaks: Coming to Terms with Flatulence:

     (see title)

   • 1996, Matt Condon, The Lulu Magnet:

     Another of Roy's room-clearing wind breaks snapped my head back.

   • 2010, Ralph Keyes, “'Windbreaks'”, in Unmentionables:

     (chapter title for chapter on flatulence)

   • 2012, Bill Tidy, Paul G. Bahn, “Wind-Breaks— Or Gone With The Wind”, in Disgraceful Archaeology:

     (see chapter title)

Translations

hedge, fence or row of trees to reduce wind damage

• Bulgarian: преграда срещу вятъра (pregrada sreštu vjatǎra)
• Catalan: tallavent m, trencavent m, paravent m
• Finnish: tuulensuojaistutus
• French: brise-vent (fr) m
• German: Windschutzstreifen m
• Hungarian: mezővédő erdősáv
• Russian: лесополоса́ (ru) f (lesopolosá) (trees or shrubs)

sheet, stack of material, or screen used to protect people or fire from wind

• Bulgarian: заслон (bg) m (zaslon)
• Catalan: paravent m, tallavent m, trencavent m
• Dutch: windscherm (nl) n
• Finnish: tuulensuoja (fi)
• German: Windschutz m
• Irish: fál fothana m (agriculture), scáthlán gaoithe m
• Maori: tāhokahoka, tītopa, pāhauhau, āhau
• Swedish: vindskydd (sv) n
• Welsh: atalfa wynt f

flatulence — see flatulence

Further reading

• windbreak on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• break wind, break-wind, breakwind