weathers

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of weather.

   The poem moves through the many weathers of a single autumn day.

   The novel traces the shifting weathers of the moors across a single year.

   Note

   A plural is possible because weather can be counted as well as treated as a mass. Alongside uncountable talk of the weather, a writer can set out several weathers: distinct spells or kinds of condition, each with its own character. The figurative countable use, meaning a situation, takes the plural the same way. The identical spelling is also the present-tense verb, so context decides which one is meant.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of weather.

   The coastline slowly weathers under the constant pounding of the surf.

   Her family weathers each financial setback by pulling together.

   Note

   Two opposite pictures share this -s form, and the object tells them apart. With an object, the subject endures and comes through: a family weathers a crisis, and a ship weathers a headland by passing to windward of it. Without an object, the subject is the one being worn down: sandstone weathers in rain, sun and air. Survival takes an object, and wear does not.

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