weather vane

• weather-vane, weathervane

weather vane (plural weather vanes)

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.

   Synonyms: vane, weathercock

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

     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.

2. An indicator; something that reflects what the current situation is.
   • 2017, Susan Shifrin, Women as Sites of Culture:

     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.

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

     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.

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

     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.

3. (figurative) A person or organization that changes their attitude and position based on the prevailing conditions rather than displaying any conviction.
   • 1960 November 23, The Christian Century, volume 77, page 1373:

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

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

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

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

     <<So I've heard, Bruno>> 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, <<but let me assure you that all this has nothing to do with the reasons why I wanted to have a chat with you>> he insisted, much to the astonishment of his interlocutor.

• anemoscope
• windsock

• weather vane on Wikipedia.Wikipedia