weather vane

plural weather vanes · alternative weather-vane · alternative weathervane

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.

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

   1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 164

   1 more example

   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.

   1913, Willa Cather, “Neighboring Fields, I”, in O Pioneers!

   Synonyms: vane, weathercock

2. An indicator; something that reflects what the current situation is.

   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.

   1918 July 25, “General Market Conditions”, in Hardwood Record, volume 45, number 7, page 17

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   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.

   2017, Susan Shifrin, Women as Sites of Culture

   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.

   1967, United States. Congress, Congressional Record, page 16726

3. figurativelyA person or organization that changes their attitude and position based on the prevailing conditions rather than displaying any conviction.

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

   1960 November 23, The Christian Century, volume 77, page 1373

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

   2003, Michael Curtis, Verdict on Vichy: Power and Prejudice in the Vichy France Regime

   <> 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.

   2011, Christopher Stewart, 2206 : Window Onto A New World, page 37