plural Chinook or Chinooks
1
: a member of an Indigenous people of the north shore of the Columbia River at its mouth
2
: a Chinookan language of the Chinook and other nearby peoples
3
or less commonly chinook
a
: a warm moist southwest wind of the coast from Oregon northward
b
: a warm dry wind that descends the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains
4
5
: any of a rare breed of large, muscular dogs that were developed in New Hampshire in the early 1900s as sled and working dogs and have a yellow, reddish-yellow, or yellowish-brown coat and calm temperament
Among the dogs he [Arthur Treadwell Walden] used for breeding the Chinook were descendants of Admiral Peary's Greenland expedition huskies, along with mastiff-types.—
John Nolan
John NolanExamples of Chinook in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The whales primarily feed on King salmon, also known as Chinook, a species that experienced significant declines due to climate change, over-fishing and habitat destruction.
—Brendan Rascius, Miami Herald, 23 June 2025
That was followed by flights of Vietnam War-era helicopters over the National Mall, followed by groups of Apache attack helicopters, Black Hawk helicopters and then Chinooks toward the end of the parade.
—Ellen Mitchell, The Hill, 15 June 2025
By establishing the salmon sanctuary in Blue Creek, the deal safeguards a vital cold-water habitat for fish including Chinook salmon, coho salmon and steelhead.
—Ian James, Los Angeles Times, 14 June 2025
Axios helpfully tallied a sampling of the hardware: twenty-eight M1A1 Abrams tanks, twenty-eight M2 Bradley fighting vehicles, four Paladin howitzers, eight CH-47 Chinook helicopters, sixteen AH-64 Apache helicopters, and sixteen UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.
—Ruth Marcus, New Yorker, 14 June 2025
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Brendan Rascius, Miami Herald, 23 June 2025
That was followed by flights of Vietnam War-era helicopters over the National Mall, followed by groups of Apache attack helicopters, Black Hawk helicopters and then Chinooks toward the end of the parade.
—Ellen Mitchell, The Hill, 15 June 2025
By establishing the salmon sanctuary in Blue Creek, the deal safeguards a vital cold-water habitat for fish including Chinook salmon, coho salmon and steelhead.
—Ian James, Los Angeles Times, 14 June 2025
Axios helpfully tallied a sampling of the hardware: twenty-eight M1A1 Abrams tanks, twenty-eight M2 Bradley fighting vehicles, four Paladin howitzers, eight CH-47 Chinook helicopters, sixteen AH-64 Apache helicopters, and sixteen UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.
—Ruth Marcus, New Yorker, 14 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for Chinook
Cite this Entry
“Chinook.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Chinook. Accessed 3 Jul. 2025.
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