blustery

From bluster +‎ -y.

blustery (comparative more blustery, superlative most blustery)

1. Blowing in loud and abrupt bursts.

   Synonyms: blusterous, gusty

   Currently, there are blustery winds blowing in Patagonia.

   • 1920, Clara Ingram Judson, “Lost—One Doll Cart”, in Mary Jane’s City Home‎^[1], New York: Barse & Hopkins, page 117:

     Fortunately, that May morning was bright and sunny; the breeze blew warm from the southland instead of cold and blustery from the lake, and it was the very best kind of a morning possible for being out of doors.

   • 1957, Bernard Malamud, chapter 1, in The Assistant‎^[2], New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, page 8:

     He wished fleetingly that he could once more be out in the open, as when he was a boy—never in the house, but the sound of the blustery wind frightened him.

2. Accompanied by strong wind.

   Synonyms: blowy, blusterous, breezy, squally, stormy, tempestuous, windy

   Today is such a cold blustery day!

   • 1918, Willa Cather, My Ántonia‎^[3], Introduction:

     […] blustery winters with little snow, when the whole country is stripped bare and gray as sheet-iron.

   • 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:

     In the small hours of a blustery October morning in a south Devon coastal town that seemed to have been deserted by its inhabitants, Magnus Pym got out of his elderly country taxicab and, having paid the driver and waited till he had left, struck out across the church square.

   • 1999, Colm Tóibín, The Blackwater Lightship‎^[4], New York: Scribner, page 88:

     The drizzle became blustery rain as she approached Curracloe.

3. (of a person) Pompous or arrogant, especially in one's speech; given to outbursts.

   Synonyms: blustering, blusterous, swaggering

   • 1858, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia‎^[5], London: Chapman and Hall, Volume 1, Book 3, Chapter 12, pp. 295-296:

     Duke Wilhelm […] seems to have been of a headlong, blustery, uncertain disposition; much tossed about in the controversies of his day.

   • 1930, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 1, in The Maltese Falcon‎^[6], New York: Knopf:

     He talks in a rather loud, blustery way and has a nervous, irritable manner.

   • 1937, Lloyd C. Douglas, chapter 16, in Forgive Us Our Trespasses‎^[7], London: Peter Davies, page 290:

     Uncle Miles wished only to dodge the issue that had hurled them apart, offering an effusive and blustery hospitality as an alternative to the air-clearing discussion which the situation so urgently called for.

   • 1989, Shashi Tharoor, chapter 22, in The Great Indian Novel‎^[8], New York: Arcade, published 2011:

     Vayu was a large, strong, blustery character, full of drive and energy but mercurial in temperament.

   • 2024 May 9, Howard LaFranchi, “Historic Israeli desire to ‘go it alone’ is tested by Gaza and Iran”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

     Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued this week to use a blustery “we will go it alone if we must” rhetoric publicly.

• blustering
• blusterous