featherbed
noun, verb
Forms featherbeds featherbedding featherbedded feather bed feather-bed
- noun A mattress stuffed with feathers.
- noun (especially UK, Dartmoor) An area of bog where a layer of moss covers a pool of water or mud, presenting a hazard to walkers who may fall through it. (Also in UK and Irish placenames.)
- noun (cricket) A soft, slow pitch of predictable bounce.
- verb (transitive) To treat someone with excessive indulgence; to pamper, cosset or mollycoddle.
- verb (intransitive) To engage in featherbedding; to employ more workers than necessary to fulfill a labor union requirement.
Synonyms
feather bed pamper cosset cocker baby coddle mollycoddle spoil indulge
Etymology
From feather + bed.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “featherbed”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details