Definition of feather
- n. - One of the peculiar dermal appendages, of several kinds,
belonging to birds, as contour feathers, quills, and down.
- n. - Kind; nature; species; -- from the proverbial phrase,
"Birds of a feather," that is, of the same species.
- n. - The fringe of long hair on the legs of the setter and some
other dogs.
- n. - A tuft of peculiar, long, frizzly hair on a horse.
- n. - One of the fins or wings on the shaft of an arrow.
- n. - 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.
- n. - A thin wedge driven between the two semicylindrical parts
of a divided plug in a hole bored in a stone, to rend the stone.
- n. - The angular adjustment of an oar or paddle-wheel float,
with reference to a horizontal axis, as it leaves or enters the water.
- v. t. - To furnish with a feather or feathers, as an arrow or a
cap.
- v. t. - To adorn, as with feathers; to fringe.
- v. t. - To render light as a feather; to give wings to.
- v. t. - To enrich; to exalt; to benefit.
- v. t. - To tread, as a cock.
- v. i. - To grow or form feathers; to become feathered; -- often
with out; as, the birds are feathering out.
- v. i. - To curdle when poured into another liquid, and float
about in little flakes or "feathers;" as, the cream feathers
- v. i. - To turn to a horizontal plane; -- said of oars.
- v. i. - To have the appearance of a feather or of feathers; to
be or to appear in feathery form.