windshield
/wɪnˈʃiːld/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.41 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A transparent screen made of glass, located at the front and back of a vehicle in front of its occupants to protect them from the wind force generated by the vehicle's speed and inclement weather.
Canadian usage; American usage
noun
A lightweight aerodynamic fairing mounted on the nose of an armor-piercing shell to reduce drag and increase range.
Example Sentences
- "The freezing rain covered our windshield with ice and we couldn't see a thing."
- "For example, when trailers containing new automobiles were first piggybacked two areas of potential damage became evident: (1) diesel locomotive exhaust left a film of oil on the new autos; and (2) auto windshields could be scarred or cracked by the metal-tipped "tell-tales" which warn men atop trains of oncoming bridges or tunnels."
- "I was at Park Safari Africa in Canada on the Canadian border. This was years ago outside of Plattsburgh, New York. And I had a new car at the time, and I was driving through, going through the monkey area. And they said 'beware of the monkeys.' So about ten of them circled my car. And this one special one, like he was the leader of the pack, jumped up on the hood and came right up to the windshield and looked in. So I was like making faces at him. [garbled] 'don't do that!' And believe it or not, he made like a face back. He jumped off the car. He took his fingernails and he peeled all the chrome on both sides of my car off. Picked it up, jumped on the hood, dropped it and left- looked at me and left."
- "The new report said 413 million yuan spent on train windshields was wasted when design specifications were changed in March 2011, three months before the line opened.[…] It found that Beichen district government in Tianjin had 340 million yuan in its own accounts instead of being paid promptly in compensation for land procured for the railway."
- "Using her hands like windshield wipers, she tried to flick snow away from her mouth. When she clawed at her chest and neck, the crumbs maddeningly slid back onto her face. She grew claustrophobic."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂weh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-ti Proto-Indo-European *h₂wḗh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *h₂wéh₁n̥ts Proto-Germanic *windaz Proto-West Germanic *wind Old English wind Middle English wynd English wind English shield English windshield From wind + shield.
Usage
- Canadian usage
- American usage
- Transitive verb