Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A northeaster.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An extratropical storm, usually found in coastal New England and Atlantic Canada, whose winds usually come from the northeast.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Contraction of northeaster.

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Examples

Comments

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  • What is raging right outside my window right now.

    September 26, 2008

  • Neat word. Not nice to be in one, though. Make sure you gluppit the prawling strangles, you hear?

    September 26, 2008

  • "This colloquialism denotes a storm that brings high winds and rain or snow to the upper Atlantic Coast. The storm is so named because although the cyclonic storm itself moves northeasterly up the coast, the inland winds on its west side blow from out of the northeast.

    "While the folksy pronunciation might evoke images of a Yankee seafarer in some, the contracted term is neither authentic nor accurate. New Englanders tend to drop their 'r' sounds and are more likely to pronounce 'northeaster' as /naw-THEES-tuh/. As Boston Globe wordsmith Jan Freeman noted, 'The facts, however, have not slowed the advance of "nor'easter." Even in print, where it's probably less common than in speech, it has practically routed "northeaster" in the past quarter-century or so. . . . It would take a mighty wind, at this point, to blow "nor'easter" back into oblivion.'" --Garner's Modern American Usage

    And this New Englander finds herself pronouncing it /naw-EES-tuh/.

    September 9, 2009

  • "A nor'easter forms when warm, moist air travelling north with the gulf stream collides with cold air moving down from Canada, resulting in snow and rain." - NASA video NASA Catches April 1 Nor’easter over New England

    April 11, 2017