“feathers” is a form of
feather
/ˈfɛðə/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms feathers feathering feathered fether
- noun A branching, hair-like structure that grows on the bodies of birds, used for flight, swimming, protection and display.
- noun Long hair on the lower legs of a dog or horse, especially a draft horse, notably the Clydesdale breed. Narrowly only the rear hair.
- noun One of the fins or wings on the shaft of an arrow.
- noun 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.
- noun Kind; nature; species (from the proverbial phrase "birds of a feather").
- noun 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.
- noun The angular adjustment of an oar or paddle-wheel float, with reference to a horizontal axis, as it leaves or enters the water.
- noun Anything petty or trifling; a whit or jot.
- verb To cover or furnish with feathers; (when of an arrow) to fletch.
- verb To adorn, as if with feathers; to fringe.
- verb To arrange in the manner or appearance of feathers. “The stylist feathered my hair.”
- verb (ambitransitive, rowing) To rotate the oars while they are out of the water to reduce wind resistance.
- verb (aeronautics) 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. “After striking the bird, the pilot feathered the damaged left engine’s propeller.”
- verb (carpentry, engineering) To finely shave or bevel an edge.
- verb (computer graphics) To intergrade or blend the pixels of an image with those of a background or neighboring image.
- verb (intransitive) Of written or printed ink: to take on a blurry appearance as a result of spreading through the receiving medium.
- proper noun An English surname originating as an occupation.
- proper noun An anglicized Americanized German surname from German, equivalent to English Feather.
Synonyms
feathers feathering horsefeathers spline plume pluma Feder plumage square fledge
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English fethere, 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 (noun sense 4) probably reflects analogy with the fletching sense (noun sense 3).
* As an occupational English name, from feather, used to refer to quilt makers, feather traders, etc.
* As an Americanized German surname, from Feder.
Webster’s 1913
- noun One of the peculiar dermal appendages, of several kinds, belonging to birds, as contour feathers, quills, and down.
- noun Kind; nature; species; --from the proverbial phrase, "Birds of a feather," that is, of the same species. [R.]
- verb 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.
- verb To adorn, as with feathers; to fringe.
Etymology [OE. fether, AS. fe; akin to D. veder, OHG. fedara, G. feder, Icel. fjö, Sw. fjäder, Dan. fjæder, Gr. pattra wing, feathr, pat to fly, and prob. to L. penna feather, wing. sq. root76, 248. Cf. Pen a feather.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “feather”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details