feather
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: aeronautics
aerospace
ball-games
billiards
business
carpentry
computer-graphics
computing
construction
cricket
engineering
games
hobbies
hunting
lifestyle
manufacturing
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
rail-transport
railways
rowing
sciences
snooker
sports
transport
Etymology: From Middle English feþer, from Old English feþer, from Proto-West Germanic *feþru, from Proto-Germanic *feþrō, from Proto-Indo-European *péth₂r̥ (“feather, wing”), from *peth₂- (“to fly”).
Cognate with West Frisian fear (“feather”), Cimbrian bèdara, fòdara (“pillowcase”), vèdara (“feather”), Dutch veder, veer (“feather”), German Feder (“feather”), German Low German Fedder (“feather”), Luxembourgish Fieder (“feather”), Vilamovian faoder (“feather”), Yiddish פֿעדער (feder, “feather”), Danish fjeder, fjer (“feather”), Faroese fjøður (“feather”), Icelandic fjöður (“feather”), Norwegian Bokmål fjær, fjør (“feather”), Norwegian Nynorsk fjøder, fjør (“feather”), Swedish fjäder (“feather”). Also Ancient Greek πέτομαι (pétomai, “to fly”), Albanian shpend (“bird”), Latin penna (“feather”), Old Armenian թիռ (tʻiṙ, “flight”).
The sense correlated with splines and keys (noun sense 4) probably reflects analogy with the fletching sense (noun sense 3).
Inflected forms:
form: feathers
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: fether
pos: noun
tags: alternative
archaic
form: feathers
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: feathering
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: feathered
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: feathered
pos: verb
tags: past
form: fether
pos: verb
tags: alternative
archaic
Senses:
gloss: A branching, hair-like structure that grows on the bodies of birds, used for flight, swimming, protection and display.
pos: noun
examples: Notice, too, that the shaft is not straight, but bent so that the upper surface of the feather is convex, and the lower concave.
Big fellows they were, all of them, their barbaric headdresses and grotesquely painted faces, together with their many metal ornaments and gorgeously coloured feathers, adding to their wild, fierce appearance.
Nesting birds pluck some of their own feathers to line the nest, but feather plucking in pet birds is entirely different.
gloss: Long hair on the lower legs of a dog or horse, especially a draft horse, notably the Clydesdale breed. Narrowly only the rear hair.
pos: noun
gloss: One of the fins or wings on the shaft of an arrow.
pos: noun
gloss: A longitudinal strip projecting from an object to strengthen it, or to enter a channel in another object and thereby prevent displacement sideways or rotationally but permit motion lengthwise.
pos: noun
examples: Near-synonym: spline
gloss: Kind; nature; species (from the proverbial phrase "birds of a feather").
pos: noun
examples: I am not of that feather to shake off / My friend when he must need me.
gloss: One of the two shims of the three-piece stone-splitting tool known as plug and feather or plug and feathers; the feathers are placed in a borehole and then a wedge is driven between them, causing the stone to split.
pos: noun
gloss: The angular adjustment of an oar or paddle-wheel float, with reference to a horizontal axis, as it leaves or enters the water.
pos: noun
gloss: Anything petty or trifling; a whit or jot.
pos: noun
examples: To some pew purchasers he gave deeds, to others he gave, none, but both were promised security, and both it seems were equally secure, for the pew deed as Mr. Melledge declared to Mr. G. was not worth a feather.
gloss: Partridges and pheasants, as opposed to rabbits and hares (called fur).
pos: noun
tags: in-plural
gloss: A junction indicator attached to a colour-light signal at an angle, which lights up, typically with four white lights in a row, when a diverging route is set up.
pos: noun
examples: Signal M123 is a conventional 3-aspect colour light with three Junction Indicators - commonly known as 'feathers'.
gloss: A faint edge.
pos: noun
gloss: To cover or furnish with feathers; (when of an arrow) to fletch.
pos: verb
examples: An Eagle had the ill Hap to be Struck with an Arrow Feather'd from her own Wing.
Olondaw had taught Hazeleye how to use her bow and arrows, and that each might know the result of his or her own shooting, he had feathered her arrow with white and his own with red. How strange are the events of this life, […]
She feathered her arrows in the Seneca fashion, two lengths of feather tied on with a spiral twist, so they would spin in flight. The trick was to glue both sides in place with a little sticky pine sap so they would stay put while she tied them […]
gloss: To adorn, as if with feathers; to fringe.
pos: verb
examples: A few birches and oaks still feathered the narrow ravines, or occupied in dwarf clusters the hollow plains of the moor.
gloss: To arrange in the manner or appearance of feathers.
pos: verb
examples: The stylist feathered my hair.
gloss: To rotate the oars while they are out of the water to reduce wind resistance.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
gloss: To streamline the blades of an aircraft's propeller by rotating them perpendicular to the axis of the propeller when the engine is shut down so that the propeller does not windmill during flight.
pos: verb
examples: After striking the bird, the pilot feathered the damaged left engine’s propeller.
gloss: To finely shave or bevel an edge.
pos: verb
gloss: To intergrade or blend the pixels of an image with those of a background or neighboring image.
pos: verb
gloss: Of written or printed ink: to take on a blurry appearance as a result of spreading through the receiving medium.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Whether or not the ink feathers depends upon the paper or card, and also upon the nature of the dye in the ink.
gloss: To render light as a feather; to give wings to.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: c. 1650, Robert Loveday, letter to Mr. C.
The Polonian story, which perhaps may feather some tedious hours.
gloss: To enrich; to exalt; to benefit.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: They stuck not to say that the king cared not to plume his nobility and people to feather himself.
gloss: To tread, as a cockerel.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Ardent in love[…]He feather'd her a hundred times a day.
gloss: To move the cue back and forth along the bridge in preparation for striking the cue ball.
pos: verb
gloss: To accidentally touch the cue ball with the tip of the cue when taking aim.
pos: verb
gloss: To touch lightly, like (or as if with) a feather.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: His breath feathered her lips; her spine, her legs weakened, went soft at the wafting warmth.
A soft breeze feathered her face and hair. The smell of honeysuckle blanketed the air. She concentrated on shutting out every sound except the whisper of her heart. Gradually the inner distractions became fewer.
gloss: To move softly, like a feather.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: She feathered her fingers through Mitchell's hair. “Besides, I like you a whole lot better than Frye.”
“Asking me not to breathe would be simpler,” Drake said. “If I could spare you what's coming—” “No.” Drake feathered her fingers through Sylvan's hair. “We fight together.” Sylvan nodded and relaxed in her embrace. Drake didn't fear death.
Synonyms: plume
pluma
Related words: fletchings
Derived words: afterfeather
beak and feather disease
beam feather
befeather
birds of a feather
blood feather
cock feather
cock-feather
contour feather
cut a feather
defeather
dot or feather
down feather
featherable
feather alum
featherback
featherbedding
feather bed
featherbed
feather-bed
feather boa
featherbone
feather-brained
featherbrained
featherbrain
feather-brain
feather Christmas tree
feathercoat
featherdom
featherdown
feather-dust
feather duster
feather duster worm
feather edge
feather edger
featherer
featherfoil
featherfoot
feather grass
feather-grass
feathergrass
featherhead
feather-headed
feather-heeled
featherily
featheriness
feathering float
feathering screw
feathering strip
feathering wheel
feather in one's cap
feather in one's hat
featherleaf
feather-legged bug
featherless
featherlet
featherlight
feather-light
featherlike
featherly
feathermaker
feather merchant
feathermonger
feathermoss
feathern
feather ore
feather oyster
feather palm
featherpate
featherpated
feather pen
feather shot
feathersome
feather spray
feather star
feather stick
featherstitch
feathertail
feather-tailed glider
feather-tailed possum
feather tree
feather-veined
featherweed
featherweight
featherwise
featherwood
feather wool
featherwork
feathery
fine feathers make fine birds
flight feather
gayfeather
horsefeathers
ice feather
Indian feather moss
in fine feather
in full feather
in high feather
knock one over with a feather
knock someone down with a feather
knock someone over with a feather
light as a feather
make the feathers fly
Mexican feather grass
midfeather
of a feather
parrotfeather
parrot's-feather
pennaceous feather
pin feather
pinfeather
plug and feather
powder-down feather
prince's feather
princess-feather
protofeather
quill feather
rosy feather star
ruffle a few feathers
ruffle some feathers
saddle feather
sea feather
secondary feather
show the white feather
spit feathers
swine's feather
tailfeather
tar-and-feather
the feathers fly
unfeather
watch the feathers fly
feathered
feather one's nest
feather one's own nest
tar and feather
Translations: