wests

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of west.

   The novel contrasts the mythic and the real wests of the American imagination.

   Travelers spoke of two different wests, one of cattle ranches and one of mining towns.

   Note

   A plural that only one meaning of west can take. The compass direction has no plural, since there is only one west at 270°. The western region can be counted, though. A writer can set a mythic west against a real one, or a west of cattle ranches against a west of mining towns. The same spelling also serves the verb's present tense, so context decides which is meant.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of west.

   Note

   The -s form of a verb made from the direction itself. Something that wests is moving westward or, in the case of the sun, setting. It takes no object, and its natural subject is the sun or the daylight going with it: the sun wests over the prairie. Because west can also mean to set, the verb is a quiet alternative to sets or sinks when the sky is the subject.

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