feather
/ˈfɛðə
/noun
1Any of the flat appendages growing from a bird’s skin and forming its plumage, consisting of a partly hollow horny shaft fringed with vanes of barbs: the waxwing has very bright feathers and a prominent crest Sally-Anne, dolled up in ostrich feathers and pearls...
- When the color of the landscape changes, females shed their white plumage as brown replacement feathers grow in.
- But the creature's most unusual feature was a set of long, asymmetric feathers with hooked barbs on its hind limbs and forelimbs.
- Primary wing feathers create the flight surface, thus allowing birds to fly.
Synonyms
plume, quill;
(feathers) plumage, feathering, down, eider (down), hackles, crest, tuft, topknot, pinion
technical covert, remex, rectrix, plumule, semi-plume
vibrissae
archaic flag
1.1 (feathers) A fringe of long hair on the legs of a dog, horse, or other animal.Use a pin brush or slicker brush in the feathers to separate the hair and to remove tangles.
verb
1 [with object] Rotate the blades of (a propeller) about their own axes in such a way as to lessen the air or water resistance.A fire erupted in the starboard engine and the pilot was unable to feather the propeller....
- He shut down the engine, feathered the propeller and entered a power-off emergency descent.
- Ken shut down the engine and feathered the propeller while Bob returned to his turret.
1.1Vary the angle of attack of (rotor blades).Orbiting over the airport, he undertook a series of flight tests which included stalls, feathering and restarting each engine, and a beat-up on the field....
- Flames were roaring out of the left nacelle as Hart pulled the fire bottles, yanked the throttle back, and feathered the prop.
1.2 Rowing Turn (an oar) so that it passes through the air edgeways: he turned, feathering one oar slowly...
- The others, even the ones who had never rowed before this day, feathered their oars like pros and smiled like kids in the candy store.
2 [no object, with adverbial] Float or move like a feather: the green fronds feathered against a blue sky...
- Twigs and leaves, from overgrown bushes - half hung in the road - bashed and feathered against his clothes.
3 [with object] Blend or smooth delicately: feather the paint in, in a series of light strokes...
- If organized is quite the word - but the point is, you could put ink on and it was much more inclined to stay put, so we could start tinkering with feathering and other decorative techniques.
- He often employed a personal technique: feathering his surfaces on the top layer with small white brushstrokes, which delicately muffle the colors underneath.
4 [no object] (Of ink, lipstick, etc.) separate into tiny lines after application: (as noun feathering) a long-lasting formula that resists feathering and protects the lips...
- Packaged in a sleek gold tube, it keeps lips smooth, fills in any lines around lips and prevents lipstick from feathering around your mouth (even on smokers).
5 short for feather cut.
Phrases
a feather in one's cap
feather one's (own) nest
(as) light as a feather
Derivatives
featherless
/ adjective ...- Using artificial insemination, they propagated offspring that would produce both feathered and featherless broilers that would grow to comparable size in the same length of time.
- On the other hand, featherless chickens tend to be more susceptible to parasites and other problems and, in previous attempts to create featherless chickens, the males have been unable to mate.
- It was featherless, but stood a foot tall on spindly jointed legs; its face was avian but - like the body - fat and dotted with patchy, moulting orange fur.
Origin
Old English fether, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch veer and German Feder, from an Indo-European root shared by Sanskrit patra 'wing', Latin penna 'feather', and Greek pteron, pterux 'wing'.
see favour, wing