SIROCCO • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Sirocco

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noun

Sirocco n. (pl. siroccos)

An oppressive, relaxing wind from the Libyan deserts, chiefly experienced in Italy, Malta, and Sicily.

In general, any hot dry wind of cyclonic origin, blowing from arid or heated regions, including the desert wind of Southern California, the harmattan of the west coasts of Africa, the hot winds of Kansas and Texas, the kamsin of Egypt, the leste of the Madeira Islands, and the leveche of Spain.

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Etymology of 'Sirocco'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sirocco" Quotes from Famous Books

... they chose to walk, following the familiar route of the trolley past the car barns and the base-ball park to the bare field under the seared face of Torrey's Hill, where circuses were wont to settle. A sirocco-like breeze from the southwest whirled into eddies the clouds of germ-laden dust stirred up by the automobiles, blowing their skirts against their legs, and sometimes they were forced to turn, ...

— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... leave the practice of each art of theirs; But with full ravishment the hours of prime, Singing, received they in the midst of leaves, That ever bore a burden to their rhymes, Such as from branch to branch goes gathering on Through the pine forest on the shore of Chiassi, When Eolus unlooses the Sirocco. Already my slow steps had carried me Into the ancient wood so far, that I Could not perceive where I had entered it. And lo! my further course a stream cut off, Which tow'rd the left hand with its little waves Bent down the grass that on its margin sprang. All waters ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 118, August, 1867 • Various

... lighten the dead weight of the sun. The Roman air, however, is not a tonic medicine, and it seldom suffers exercise to be all exhilarating. It has always seemed to me indeed part of the charm of the latter that your keenest consciousness is haunted with a vague languor. Occasionally when the sirocco blows that sensation becomes strange and exquisite. Then, under the grey sky, before the dim distances which the south-wind mostly brings with it, you seem to ride forth into a world from which all hope has departed and in which, in spite of the flowers ...

— Italian Hours • Henry James

... to semiarid; mild, wet winters with hot, dry summers along coast; drier with cold winters and hot summers on high plateau; sirocco is a hot, dust/sand-laden wind especially common ...

— The 2002 CIA World Factbook • US Government

... return to the kitchen-gardens. Pretty as they are to the eye, they are not considered to be wholesome; and no Roman will live in a house near one of them, especially if it lie on the southern and western side, so that the Sirocco and the prevalent summer winds blow over it. The daily irrigation, in itself, would be sufficient to frighten all Italians away; for they have a deadly fear of all effluvia arising from decomposing ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 31, May, 1860 • Various

Words linked to "Sirocco" : sandstorm, duster, windstorm, dust storm