boreas

name

1. (Greek)The god of the North Wind.

   “For a Tempeſt. Take Eurus, Zephyr, Auſter and Boreas, and caſt them together in one Verſe. Add to theſe of Rain, Lightning, and of Thunder (the loudeſt you can) quantum ſufficit. Mix your Clouds and Billows well together till they foam, and thicken your Deſcription here and there with a Quickſand. Brew your Tempeſt well in your Head, before you ſet it a blowing.”

   “BOREAS, one of the four Cardinal Winds, and one of the Deities of the Heathens, was the Son of Aſtræus and Aurora, and had his Seat at Thrace. Pindar calls him the King of Winds. [Footnote numbers omitted.]”

2. (poetic)The north wind personified.

   “Now stands the Brere like a lord alone, / Puffed up with pryde and vaine pleasaunce. / But all this glee had no continuaunce: / For eftsones winter gan to approche; / The blustering Boreas did encroche, / And beate upon the solitarie Brere; / For nowe no succoure was seene him nere.”

   “BEAT on, proud billows; Boreas blow; / Swell, curled waves, high as Jove's roof; / Your incivility doth ſhow, / That innocence is tempeſt proof; / Though ſurly Nereus frown, my thoughts are calm; / Then ſtrike, Affliction, for thy wounds are balm. [Attributed to Roger L'Estrange (1616–1704).]”

   “"Timber felled in winter, when Boreas is blowing, will burn beautifully and almost without smoke" (2.4.39 [24]). […] "Face all the summer rooms [of the villa] to receive Boreas" (5.18.153 [91v]); and "It is best to make libraries face Boreas" (9.10.317 [174v]).”

noun

1. (obsolete, poetic)The north wind.

   “Whether it is most prudent to expose / Our lovely forms to keenest blasts of boreas”