[Chi.nook] n, pl Chinook or Chinooks [Lower Chehalis (Salishan language of western Washington) cinuk, name of a Chinook village] (1805) 1: a member of an American Indian people of the north shore of the Columbia River at its mouth
2: a Chinookan language of the Chinook and other nearby peoples 3 often not cap a: a warm moist southwest wind of the coast from Oregon northward b: a warm dry wind that descends the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains
4. not cap: chinook salmon