feather : Idioms & Phrases

• an honour, trophy, or mark of distinction. Colloq.

Webster 1913

• (Archery), the feather of an arrow at right angles to the direction of the cock or notch.

Webster 1913

• noun feathers covering the body of an adult bird and determining its shape
  contour feather.
  

WordNet

• noun feathers covering the body of an adult bird and determining its shape
  contour feather.
  

WordNet

• (Zoöl.), those feathers that form the general covering of a bird.

Webster 1913

• noun soft fine feathers
  down.
  

WordNet

• (Min.), a hydrous sulphate of alumina, resulting from volcanic action, and from the decomposition of iron pyrites; called also halotrichite. Ure.

Webster 1913

• noun a low tuberculate cactus with white feathery spines; northeastern Mexico
  Mammillaria plumosa.
  

WordNet

• noun a mattress stuffed with feathers
  featherbed.
  

WordNet

• a bed filled with feathers.

Webster 1913

• noun a long thin fluffy scarf of feathers or fur
  boa.
  

WordNet

• one who prepares feathers by beating.

Webster 1913

• a dusting brush of feathers.

Webster 1913

• an artifical flower made of feathers, for ladies' headdresses, and other ornamental purposes.

Webster 1913

• noun Eurasian aromatic oak-leaved goosefoot with many yellow-green flowers; naturalized North America
  Jerusalem oak; Chenopodium botrys; Atriplex mexicana; Mexican tea.
  

WordNet

• (Bot.), a kind of grass (Stipa pennata) which has a long feathery awn rising from one of the chaffy scales which inclose the grain.

Webster 1913

• one who makes plumes, etc., of feathers, real or artificial.

Webster 1913

• verb enrich oneself by taking advantage of one's position
  
  • The congressmen feathered his nest through his connection with big business

WordNet

• (Min.), a sulphide of antimony and lead, sometimes found in capillary forms and like a cobweb, but also massive. It is a variety of Jamesonite.

Webster 1913

• noun palm having pinnate or featherlike leaves
  

WordNet

• noun a variety of reed grass
  feathertop; Calamagrostis acutiflora.
  

WordNet

• (Metal.), copper granulated by pouring into cold water. Raymond.

Webster 1913

• (Naut.), the spray thrown up, like pairs of feathers, by the cutwater of a fast-moving vessel.

Webster 1913

• noun free-swimming stalkless crinoid with ten feathery arms; found on muddy sea bottoms
  comatulid.
  

WordNet

• . (Zoöl.) See Comatula.

Webster 1913

• . (Racing) (a) Scrupulously exact weight, so that a feather would turn the scale, when a jockey is weighed or weighted. (b) The lightest weight that can be put on the back of a horse in racing. Youatt. (c) In wrestling, boxing, etc., a term applied to the lightest of the classes into which contestants are divided ; in contradistinction to light weight, middle weight, and heavy weight.

Webster 1913

Feath"er-brained/ adjective

Definitions

1. Giddy; frivolous; feather-headed. Colloq.

Webster 1913

Feath"er-edge/ noun

Definitions

1. (Zoöl.) The thin, new growth around the edge of a shell, of an oyster.
2. Any thin, as on a board or a razor.

Webster 1913

Feath"er-edged/ adjective

Definitions

1. Having a feather-edge; also, having one edge thinner than the other, as a board; -- in the United States, said only of stuff one edge of which is made as thin as practicable.

Webster 1913

Feath"er-few/ noun

Definitions

1. (Bot.) Feverfew.

Webster 1913

• noun a plant of the genus Hottonia
  featherfoil.
  

WordNet

Feath"er-foil` noun

Etymology

Feather + foil a leaf.

Definitions

1. (Bot.) An aquatic plant (Hottonia palustris), having finely divided leaves.

Webster 1913

Feath"er-head` noun

Definitions

1. A frivolous or featherbrained person. Colloq. H. James.

Webster 1913

Feath"er-head`ed adjective

Definitions

1. Giddy; frivolous; foolish. Colloq. G. Eliot.

Webster 1913

Feath"er-heeled` adjective

Definitions

1. Light-heeled; gay; frisky; frolicsome. Colloq.

Webster 1913

Feath"er-pat"ed adjective

Definitions

1. Feather-headed; frivolous. Colloq. Sir W. Scott.

Webster 1913

Feath"er-veined` adjective

Definitions

1. (Bot.) Having the veins (of a leaf) diverging from the two sides of a midrib.

Webster 1913

• noun any of the larger wing or tail feathers of a bird
  flight feather; quill; pinion.
  

WordNet

• noun any of the larger wing or tail feathers of a bird
  flight feather; quill; pinion.
  

WordNet

• (Zoöl.), the wing feathers of a bird, including the quills, coverts, and bastard wing. See Bird.

Webster 1913

• noun any of various North American plants of the genus Liatris having racemes or panicles of small discoid flower heads
  blazing star; button snakeroot; snakeroot; gayfeather.
  

WordNet

• feathers which have been plucked from the living bird, and are therefore stronger and more elastic.

Webster 1913

• . A pin feather. Obs.

Webster 1913

• . (Stone Working) See Feather, n., 7.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), one of a peculiar kind of modified feathers which sometimes form patches on certain parts of some birds. They have a greasy texture and a scaly exfoliation.

Webster 1913

• noun one of the main flight feathers projecting along the outer edge of a bird's wing
  primary; primary quill.
  

WordNet

• (Bot.), a name given to two annual herbs (Amarantus caudatus and Polygonum orientale), with apetalous reddish flowers arranged in long recurved panicled spikes.

Webster 1913

• noun annual with broadly ovate leaves and slender drooping spikes of crimson flowers; southeastern Asia and Australia; naturalized in North America
  kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate; prince's-plume; Polygonum orientale; prince's-feather.
  
• noun tall showy tropical American annual having hairy stems and long spikes of usually red flowers above leaves deeply flushed with purple; seeds often used as cereal
  gentleman's-cane; prince's-plume; Amaranthus cruentus; Amaranthus hybridus hypochondriacus; Amaranthus hybridus erythrostachys; purple amaranth; red amaranth.
  

WordNet

• noun New Zealand with pinnate fronds and a densely woolly stalks; sometimes included in genus Todea
  Leptopteris superba; Prince-of-Wales plume; Todea superba; crape fern; Prince-of-Wales fern.
  

WordNet

• noun annual with broadly ovate leaves and slender drooping spikes of crimson flowers; southeastern Asia and Australia; naturalized in North America
  kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate; prince's-plume; Polygonum orientale; prince's-feather.
  

WordNet

• noun any of the larger wing or tail feathers of a bird
  flight feather; quill; pinion.
  

WordNet

• noun a long narrow feather on the back (saddle) of a domestic fowl
  saddle hackle.
  

WordNet

• noun corals forming featherlike colonies
  

WordNet

Sea" feath"er

Definitions

1. (Zoöl.) Any gorgonian which branches in a plumelike form.

Webster 1913

• noun one of the long curved tail feathers of a rooster
  

WordNet

• noun feather growing from the tail (uropygium) of a bird
  

WordNet

• verb smear the body of (someone) with tar and feathers; done in some societies as punishment
  
  • The thief was tarred and feathered

WordNet

• adjective satellite smeared with tar and covered with feathers as a punishment
  
  • the poor tarred-and-feathered wretch

WordNet

• to be in full dress or in one's best clothes. Collog.

Webster 1913

• to be in high spirits. Collog.

Webster 1913

• . (a) (Naut.) To make the water foam in moving; in allusion to the ripple which a ship throws off from her bows. (b) To make one's self conspicuous. Colloq.

Webster 1913

• (Naut), to turn it when it leaves the water so that the blade will be horizontal and offer the least resistance to air while reaching for another stroke.

Webster 1913

• to provide for one's self especially from property belonging to another, confided to one's care; an expression taken from the practice of birds which collect feathers for the lining of their nests.

Webster 1913

• . See under Feather. , v. t.

Webster 1913

• to exite the resentment of; to irritate.

Webster 1913

• to betray cowardice, a white feather in the tail of a cock being considered an indication that he is not of the true game breed.

Webster 1913

• to smear him with tar and cover him with feathers, as a punishment or an indignity.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), one of the anal, or crissal, feathers of a bird.

Webster 1913

Wa"ter feath"er, Wa"ter feath"er-foil` (Also<

• Water feather
• Water feather-foil

)

Definitions

1. (Bot.) The water violet (Hottonia palustris); also, the less showy American plant H. inflata.

Webster 1913

• noun a symbol of cowardice
  

WordNet

• a mark or symbol of cowardice. See To show the white feather, under Feather, n.

Webster 1913