%feather%

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Feathered p. pr. & vb. n. Feathering. ] 1. To furnish with a feather or feathers, as an arrow or a cap. [ 1913 Webster ]

An eagle had the ill hap to be struck with an arrow feathered from her own wing. L'Estrange. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To adorn, as with feathers; to fringe. [ 1913 Webster ]

A few birches and oaks still feathered the narrow ravines. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To render light as a feather; to give wings to.[ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The Polonian story perhaps may feather some tedious hours. Loveday. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To enrich; to exalt; to benefit. [ 1913 Webster ]

They stuck not to say that the king cared not to plume his nobility and people to feather himself. Bacon. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To tread, as a cock. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

To feather one's nest, 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. --
To feather an oar (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. --
To tar and feather a person, to smear him with tar and cover him with feathers, as a punishment or an indignity. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To grow or form feathers; to become feathered; -- often with out; as, the birds are feathering out. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To curdle when poured into another liquid, and float about in little flakes or “feathers;” as, the cream feathers. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To turn to a horizontal plane; -- said of oars. [ 1913 Webster ]

The feathering oar returns the gleam. Tickell. [ 1913 Webster ]

Stopping his sculls in the air to feather accurately. Macmillan's Mag. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To have the appearance of a feather or of feathers; to be or to appear in feathery form. [ 1913 Webster ]

A clump of ancient cedars feathering in evergreen beauty down to the ground. Warren. [ 1913 Webster ]

The ripple feathering from her bows. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. a mattress stuffed with feathers.
Syn. -- feather bed. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A substitute for whalebone, made from the quills of geese and turkeys. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. Giddy; frivolous; lacking seriousness; given to frivolity; feather-headed. [ Colloq. ]
Syn. -- airheaded, dizzy, empty-headed, giddy, lightheaded, light-headed, silly. [ 1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5 ]

a. 1. Clothed, covered, or fitted with (or as with) feathers or wings; as, a feathered animal; a feathered arrow. [ 1913 Webster ]

Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Nonsense feathered with soft and delicate phrases and pointed with pathetic accent. Dr. J. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Furnished with anything featherlike; ornamented; fringed; as, land feathered with trees. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Zool.) Having a fringe of feathers, as the legs of certian birds; or of hairs, as the legs of a setter dog. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Her.) Having feathers; -- said of an arrow, when the feathers are of a tincture different from that of the shaft. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. (Zool.) The thin, new growth around the edge of a shell, of an oyster. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Any thin, as on a board or a razor. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) Feverfew. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Feather + foil a leaf. ] (Bot.) An aquatic plant (Hottonia palustris), having finely divided leaves. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A frivolous or feather-brained person. [ Colloq. ] H. James. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Giddy; frivolous; foolish. [ Colloq. ] G. Eliot. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Light-heeled; gay; frisky; frolicsome. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state or condition of being feathery. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. (Arch.) Same as Foliation. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The act of turning the blade of the oar, as it rises from the water in rowing, from a vertical to a horizontal position. See To feather an oar, under Feather, v. t. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A covering of feathers. [ 1913 Webster ]

Feathering float (Naut.), the float or paddle of a feathering wheel. --
Feathering screw (Naut.), a screw propeller, of which the blades may be turned so as to move edgewise through the water when the vessel is moving under sail alone. --
Feathering wheel (Naut.), a paddle wheel whose floats turn automatically so as to dip about perpendicularly into the water and leave in it the same way, avoiding beating on the water in the descent and lifting water in the ascent. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Destitute of feathers. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Like feathers. [ Obs. ] Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Feather-headed; frivolous. [ Colloq. ] Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A kind of embroidery stitch producing a branching zigzag line. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. (Bot.) Having the veins (of a leaf) diverging from the two sides of a midrib. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pertaining to, or resembling, feathers; covered with, or as with, feathers; as, feathery spray or snow. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ye feathery people of mid air. Barry Cornwall. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. (Steam Boilers) A vertical water space in a fire box or combustion chamber. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Mining) A support for the center of a tunnel. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A feather not fully developed; esp., a rudimentary feather just emerging through the skin. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having part, or all, of the feathers imperfectly developed. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Zool.) Any gorgonian which branches in a plumelike form. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ 1st pref. un- + feather. ] To deprive of feathers; to strip. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]