Meaning of weather vane | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A mechanical device rotating around one axis and attached to an elevated object such as a roof for showing the direction of the wind.
2. An indicator; something that reflects what the current situation is.
3. A person or organization that changes their attitude and position based on the prevailing conditions rather than displaying any conviction.
   figuratively

Equivalents

Examples

“From the graveyard gate one can count a dozen gayly painted farmhouses; the gilded weather-vanes on the big red barns wink at each other across the green and brown and yellow fields.”

“This one is surmounted by a clock-tower with a bent weather-vane - the latter being the only disorderly object in sight.”

“Since Elaine Showalter's 1985 article on the topic, Ophelia has been singled out as a role that depends for its power on the expression of female sexual desire, and, because of this, one that acts as a weather vane for attitudes towards women's sexuality.”

“Possibly though the best weather vane of the shippers' condition is the attitude of the mill trade as a whole toward present laxness in new orders.”

“But since this measure involves comparing the private judgments of different sets of teachers, it is less reliable as a weather vane of achievement than the results of standardized tests.”

“The man who changes with every wind of doctrine is not a thinker but a weather vane.”

“Laval was a political weather vane, perpetually mobile, but always resting on the same base, himself, the Talleyrand of Aubervilliers.”

“<> repeated the federalist, appalled as always by the weather vane attitude that the Syndicate was well-known for adopting at such times, yet not letting his personal opinion transpire, <> he insisted, much to the astonishment of his interlocutor.”

CEFR level