feather

Meaning

Noun

1. A branching, hair-like structure that grows on the bodies of birds, used for flight, swimming, protection and display.
2. Long hair on the lower legs of a dog or horse, especially a draft horse, notably the Clydesdale breed. Narrowly only the rear hair.
3. One of the fins or wings on the shaft of an arrow.
4. 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.
5. Kind; nature; species (from the proverbial phrase "birds of a feather").
6. 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.
7. The angular adjustment of an oar or paddle-wheel float, with reference to a horizontal axis, as it leaves or enters the water.
8. Anything petty or trifling; a whit or jot.
9. (in-plural) Partridges and pheasants, as opposed to rabbits and hares (called fur).
10. 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.
11. A faint edge.

Verb

1. To cover or furnish with feathers; (when of an arrow) to fletch.
2. To adorn, as if with feathers; to fringe.
3. To arrange in the manner or appearance of feathers.
4. (ambitransitive) To rotate the oars while they are out of the water to reduce wind resistance.
5. 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.
6. To finely shave or bevel an edge.
7. To intergrade or blend the pixels of an image with those of a background or neighboring image.
8. (intransitive) Of written or printed ink: to take on a blurry appearance as a result of spreading through the receiving medium.
9. (transitive) To render light as a feather; to give wings to.
10. (transitive) To enrich; to exalt; to benefit.
11. (transitive) To tread, as a cockerel.
12. To move the cue back and forth along the bridge in preparation for striking the cue ball.
13. To accidentally touch the cue ball with the tip of the cue when taking aim.
14. (transitive) To touch lightly, like (or as if with) a feather.
15. (transitive) To move softly, like a feather.

Opposite of

spats

Synonyms

hair

plume

wing

🪽

plumage

fur

quill

body hair

down

feathering

square

feathers

pen

🖊️

wool

pinion

fledge

down feather

wings

bird feather

fine hair

flemish

outshot

projecting portion

casting scull

barb

plumery

bulge

coat

🧥

dime

fender

flying

hide

lip

peacock feather

raining

shaft

shoulder

skin

teat

trifle

tuft

Translations

plume

🪶

Feder

🪶

pluma

🪶

piuma

🪶

veer

🪶

penna

🪶

ploma

🪶

pena

tüy

penna

🪽

veder

pluma

πούπουλο

φτερό

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈfɛð.ə(ɹ)/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: feþer

Inherited from Old English: feþer

Cognate with Western Frisian: fear

Cognate with Dutch: veder

Cognate with German: Feder

Cognate with Yiddish: פֿעדער

Cognate with Danish: fjer

Cognate with Swedish: fjäder

Cognate with Icelandic: fjöður

Cognate with Faroese: fjøður

Cognate with Norwegian Bokmål: fjær

Cognate with Norwegian Nynorsk: fjør

Cognate with Ancient Greek: πέτομαι

Cognate with Albanian: shpend

Cognate with Latin: penna

Cognate with Classical Armenian: թիռ

In summary

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 (sense 4) probably reflects analogy with the fletching sense (sense 3).