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Gust Beyond Wind
You're no doubt familiar with the simple gust that means "a brief burst of wind." At least a century and a half before that word first appeared in print in the late 16th century, however, a differently derived homograph came on the scene. The windy gust is probably derived from an Old Norse word gustr, whereas our older featured word (which is now considerably rarer than its look-alike) comes to us through Middle English from gustus, the Latin word for "taste." Gustus gave English another word as well. Gusto (which now usually means "zest" but can also mean "an individual or specific taste") comes to us from gustus by way of Italian.
Synonyms
Examples of gust in a Sentence
Haadiza Ogwude, The Enquirer, 17 Apr. 2024
The National Weather Service in Indianapolis is predicting blustery winds with gusts reaching 40 mph.
—Karl Schneider, The Indianapolis Star, 17 Apr. 2024
Friday will be mostly sunny with a high near 70 and wind gusts as high as 18 mph before the rain arrives.
—Sarah Linn, Sacramento Bee, 11 Apr. 2024
In addition to tornadoes, storms could also produce damaging wind gusts, flooding downpours and small hail.
—Kathryn Prociv, NBC News, 11 Apr. 2024
Only one or two wind gusts from the north or northwest near 25 mph — most breezes stay much lower than that, an improvement over Saturday.
—A. Camden Walker, Washington Post, 6 Apr. 2024
The Denver metro and Front Range are under a high wind warning starting Saturday morning, with forecasters predicting gusts of up to 100 mph in the foothills on Saturday.
—Katie Langford, The Denver Post, 5 Apr. 2024
Some of the heavier storms can produce flooding, hail, and brief strong wind gusts.
—Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY, 5 Apr. 2024
To further emphasize the similarities, on both days, as of 5 p.m. Saturday, the peak gust measured at an identical 38 mph.
—Martin Weil, Washington Post, 7 Apr. 2024
Journal Sentinel, 16 Apr. 2024
That leads to sustained winds around 25 mph and gusts near or past 40 mph, out of the west.
Sunday: More clouds than on Saturday seems a fair bet from here.
—Ian Livingston, Washington Post, 12 Apr. 2024
Meteorologists warned that places within the bounds of this advisory would likely see a few tornadoes and widespread wind gusts up to 80 miles per hour.
—Emily Mae Czachor, CBS News, 10 Apr. 2024
Winds are expected to gust around 22 mph in the afternoon.
—Karl Schneider, The Indianapolis Star, 4 Apr. 2024
Forecasters say the winds could gust upwards of 50 mph on Thursday afternoon on I-8 east of Pine Valley, affecting high-profile vehicles moving between San Diego and Imperial counties.
—Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 Apr. 2024
Winds gusts of up to 45 miles per hour were expected Saturday, with humidity below 10% and a high temperature of 75 degrees.
—Graham Underwood, arkansasonline.com, 3 Mar. 2024
The warm weather will also bring a fire risk from New Mexico into the southern Rockies and parts of the Texas Panhandle, as winds gust over 35 mph and low humidity make conditions ripe for wildfires to spark and spread.
—Kathryn Prociv, NBC News, 21 Feb. 2024
The primary threat includes the likelihood of a few tornadoes, scattered hail up to tennis balls in size, and wind gusts up to 80 mph.
—Robert A. Cronkleton, Kansas City Star, 1 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gust.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Gust.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gust. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.
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