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💨 A southwest wind 👒 A rain hat
sou'wester

sou'wester

9.4
A waterproof hat with a long sloping brim at the back that sailors wear in rain
  • noun
  • /ˈsuːˌwɛstər/
  • UK
translation icon : sombrero impermeable
  • She pulled her sou'wester tightly over her head as the wind picked up at the harbor.

Examples

  • His Macintosh whipped around him, and his sou'wester seemed ready to fly off his head.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • I’d be a monkey on the rigging, or storm-flung, only there was no Sou'Wester.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • You do look handsome in your sou'wester.

    Their Finest (2017)

  • Hansen started from beneath the yellow sou'wester that crowned his head.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • It ran around the edges of her sou'wester and rain slicker into the sodden blue wool of her uniform, leaching her body's warmth.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The sailor wore a sou'wester to protect himself from the pouring rain during the storm.

  • To keep dry while fishing, he always wore a sou'wester in bad weather.

How Protective

rainwear
1 1.8
sou'wester
  • UK
9.4
hat
∞ 1.0
cap
175 1.0

Surface Forms

sou'wester singular
sou'westers plural

Morphology

sou'wester = southwester (opaque) = south + west + er

The form 'sou'wester' is a recognizable clipped variant of 'southwester' with the same meaning.

Etymology

Sou'wester is also the name of a waterproof hat that sailors wore in a sou'wester because its long back keeps the rain off the neck, so the hat's name tells you it is made for wet, windy weather.