[veyn] 
| 1. | weather vane. |
| 2. | a blade, plate, sail, etc., in the wheel of a windmill, to be moved by the air. |
| 3. | any of a number of blades or plates attached radially to a rotating drum or cylinder, as in a turbine or pump, that move or are moved by a fluid, as steam, water, hot gases, or air. |
| 4. | a person who is readily changeable or fickle. |
| 5. | Aerospace.
|
| 6. | Ornithology. the web of a feather. |
| 7. | Navigation, Surveying. either of two fixed projections for sighting an alidade or the like. |
| 8. | Archery. feather (def. 5). |
[veyn] Sir Henry (Sir Harry Vane ), 1613–62, British statesman and author. |
| a device, as a rod to which a freely rotating pointer is attached, for indicating the direction of the wind. |
| vane (vān) n.
[Middle English fane, vane, from Old English fana, flag; see pan- in Indo-European roots.] |
| Vane (vān) English politician and colonial administrator who was governor of Massachusetts (1636-1637) and a leading Parliamentarian during the English Civil War. He was tried and executed for high treason after the restoration of the monarchy. |
Vane (vān), John Robert. Born 1927.
British pharmacologist. He shared a 1982 Nobel Prize for research on prostaglandins.
| vane (vān) Pronunciation Key
The flattened, weblike part of a feather, consisting of a series of barbs on either side of the rachis. |