feather Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the light horny waterproof structure forming the external covering of birds
    plumage; plume.
  2. noun turning an oar parallel to the water between pulls
    feathering.
  3. verb join tongue and groove, in carpentry
  4. verb cover or fit with feathers
  5. verb turn the paddle; in canoeing
    square.
  6. verb turn the oar, while rowing
    square.
  7. verb grow feathers
    fledge.
    • The young sparrows are fledging already

WordNet

Feath"er noun
Etymology
OE. fether, AS. feder; akin to D. veder, OHG. fedara, G. feder, Icel. fjör, Sw. fjäder, Dan. fjæder, Gr. wing, feather, to fly, Skr. pattra wing, feathr, pat to fly, and prob. to L. penna feather, wing. Cf. Pen a feather.
Definitions
  1. One of the peculiar dermal appendages, of several kinds, belonging to birds, as contour feathers, quills, and down. ✍ An ordinary feather consists of the quill or hollow basal part of the stem; the shaft or rachis, forming the upper, solid part of the stem; the vanes or webs, implanted on the rachis and consisting of a series of slender laminæ or barbs, which usually bear barbicels and interlocking hooks by which they are fastened together. See Down, Quill, Plumage.
  2. Kind; nature; species; -- from the proverbial phrase, "Birds of a feather," that is, of the same species. R.
    I am not of that feather to shake off My friend when he must need me. Shak.
  3. The fringe of long hair on the legs of the setter and some other dogs.
  4. A tuft of peculiar, long, frizzly hair on a horse.
  5. One of the fins or wings on the shaft of an arrow.
  6. (Mach. & Carp.) A longitudinal strip projecting as a fin from an object, to strengthen it, or to enter a channel in another object and thereby prevent displacement sidwise but permit motion lengthwise; a spline.
  7. A thin wedge driven between the two semicylindrical parts of a divided plug in a hole bored in a stone, to rend the stone. Knight.
  8. The angular adjustment of an oar or paddle-wheel float, with reference to a horizontal axis, as it leaves or enters the water. ✍ Feather is used adjectively or in combination, meaning composed of, or resembling, a feather or feathers; as, feather fan, feather-heeled, feather duster.
Feath"er transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Feathered present participle & verbal noun Feathering
Definitions
  1. To furnish with a feather or feathers, as an arrow or a cap.
    An eagle had the ill hap to be struck with an arrow feathered from her own wing. L'Estrange.
  2. To adorn, as with feathers; to fringe.
    A few birches and oaks still feathered the narrow ravines. Sir W. Scott.
  3. To render light as a feather; to give wings to.R.
    The Polonian story perhaps may feather some tedions hours. Loveday.
  4. To enrich; to exalt; to benefit.
    They stuck not to say that the king cared not to plume his nobility and people to feather himself. Bacon.
    Dryden.
  5. To tread, as a cock. Dryden.
Feath"er intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To grow or form feathers; to become feathered; -- often with out; as, the birds are feathering out.
  2. To curdle when poured into another liquid, and float about in little flakes or "feathers;" as, the cream feathers Colloq.
  3. To turn to a horizontal plane; -- said of oars.
    The feathering oar returns the gleam. Tickell.
    Stopping his sculls in the air to feather accurately. Macmillan's Mag.
  4. To have the appearance of a feather or of feathers; to be or to appear in feathery form.
    A clump of ancient cedars feathering in evergreen beauty down to the ground. Warren.
    The ripple feathering from her bows. Tennyson.

Webster 1913