chinook

plural chinooks

1. CanadaUSclimatologyThe descending, warm, dry wind on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains that generally blows from the southwest and can rapidly increase the temperature due to the much warmer air it brings.

   Bije was a grim man, lean and hard as jerked buffalo beef,with hair and beard the colour of melting snow in a chinook.

   1950, Dorothy M. Johnson, War Shirt; in Indian Country, London: Corgi, 1961, page 107

2. The chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha).

1. A Native American language of the Penutian family of Oregon and Washington.
2. Chinook Jargon, a pidgin trade language of the Pacific Northwest composed primarily of words from Chinook proper, English, and French, with some borrowings from other languages.

   The Missionary's address rolled on in choppy Chinook, undertoned by a gentle voice from the back of the room which told Tanook in pure Indian words what he was to do.

   1941, Emily Carr, chapter 1, in Klee Wyck

3. A city, the county seat of Blaine County, Montana, United States.
4. The Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter.

plural Chinooks

1. A member of a Native American people whose traditional tribal grounds were along the lower and middle Columbia River.

   The Chinook sent a hunting party to the south.

2. Alternative letter-case form of chinook