a shifting wind that blows from sea or land for some certain hours in the day or night; common in Africa and some parts of the East and West Indies.

Breezes differ from easterly trade-winds, as the former are diurnal, or have their periods each day; and the latter are anniversaries, and blow at a distance from land. The sea-breezes rule by day, and the land-breezes by night; so that, dividing their empire, they remain constant as the seasons of the year, or course of the sun, on which they seem to depend: not but that they appear sooner or later, stronger or weaker, in some places than in others; and vary the alternative according to the several latitudes, situations, and soils, &c. of the countries where they are found. See the article Wind.

BREEZE-Fly. See Tabanus.