💨 Air resistance 🎯 Wind deflection 🔫 Space in barrel

windage

1 8.8

Air resistance that slows a moving object like a train or bike

noun
/ˈwɪnˌdeɪdʒ/

Specialized

: resistencia del viento

Adjusting the sights for windage can significantly affect the results in long-range shooting competitions.
windage and elevation
low windage
high windage

Examples

When shooting at targets far away, understanding the windage is crucial for hitting the mark.
You just learn to deal and allow for windage.

Blog text (6)
Hey, Lieutenant, some Kentucky windage?

Platoon (1986)
It was a cinch if you got your windage right.

Fiction book (2001)
This reduced the windage losses that cut motor efficiency. "Also, we reworked our motor bearings and the machining of our rotor surfaces to increase efficiency," said Boteler.

Academic text (2001)
To improve accuracy, we must account for the windage caused by the strong breeze during the shoot.

Synonyms

aerodynamic force

vswindage

Specialized

6.0

A push or pull from air on something moving through it, for example lift and drag on a wing

focuses only on resisting force from air rather than lift

dragginess

vswindage

Specialized

9.2

How much an object slows movement through air or water

expresses the resisting force itself rather than a quality or degree

Surface Forms

windage singular

windages plural

Morphology

windage = wind (semi-transparent) = wind + -age + age

The word is built from wind + -age, but the specific sense of air resistance is only partly predictable from the base.

Etymology

Windage comes from the everyday word wind plus the ending -age, which means 'action or result'. So windage is the action of the wind on a moving thing—the resistance or force that can slow it down.