feather

Less common meanings

4. 4
   touch lightlyverbtransitive

   To touch something, or move it, very lightly and softly, as if with a feather.

   Her fingertips feathered the piano keys, barely sounding the notes.

   Light winds feather the tops of the tall grass along the lake.

   UsageMostly in descriptive writing, with breath, wind or fingertips doing the touching: a breeze feathered her hair.

   Similarbrush, graze, skim, caress, stroke

   Note

   At home in sensory prose, where the subject is often moving air. Joan Hohl's Maybe Tomorrow has breath that "feathered her lips." Gary Parker's Her Daddy's Eyes has a soft breeze that "feathered her face and hair." In these examples the object is what gets touched, and the touch is barely there. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • Joan Hohl's Maybe Tomorrow contains the quoted description of breath. en.wiktionary.org
   • Gary Parker's Her Daddy's Eyes contains the quoted description of a soft breeze. en.wiktionary.org
   • With the included meaning 'move softly', the object can identify what moves: in 'feathered her fingers through Mitchell's hair', the object is 'her fingers'. en.wiktionary.org
5. 5
   kindnoun

   Kind, nature, or sort; the class of people or things that share a character.

   Gamblers and con artists are birds of a feather, drawn to the same smoky back rooms.

   He had no patience for critics of that feather.

   UsageMostly in the proverb birds of a feather (flock together), sometimes of that feather.

   Similarkind, sort, type, stripe, ilk

   Note

   Here a bird's plumage stands for its kind: birds of one species share a feather, so birds of a feather are birds of one sort. Outside that proverb the noun is rare. It is usually found in of that feather or of the same feather, as in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens: "I am not of that feather to shake off / My friend when he must need me." Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • The figurative meaning concerns kind or nature and is associated with the proverb about birds of a feather. en.wiktionary.org
   • The quotation occurs in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens; Timon speaks it in Act 1, Scene 1. rsc.org.uk
6. 6
   arrow finnouncountable

   One of the fins or vanes mounted on the shaft of an arrow.

   Before the match, the archer replaced a bent feather on one of her arrows.

   Before the match, she replaced a torn feather on her arrow so it would fly true again.

   Similarvane

7. 7
   leg hairnouncountable or uncountable

   The long, silky hair on the lower legs of certain dogs and horses, especially draft breeds such as the Clydesdale.

   Groomers wash the feather on a Clydesdale's legs before every parade.

   The setter's leg feathers caught burrs as it pushed through the brush.

   Similarfeathering

   Note

   Strictly speaking, only the long hair at the back of the lower leg counts. Looser use takes in the whole fringe. The plural feathers and the noun feathering mean the same thing, so a Clydesdale's feather, feathers and feathering all describe one coat. It can be used uncountably, like hair, or in the plural, and the plural is especially common for dogs. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

   • In the narrower anatomical sense, feather is the long hair growing down the back of the lower leg. clydesdalehorse.com.au
8. 8
   soften edges (photo)verbtransitive

   To blend the pixels along an image's edge gradually into a background or adjacent image, softening the transition.

   Feather the selection by a few pixels before pasting it onto the new background.

   The designer feathered the composite's seams until the two photos merged invisibly.

   Similarsoften, blend, blur

   Note

   The digital counterpart of the carpenter's tapered edge. Instead of wood thinning out, opacity ramps down over a set radius, so one image fades into the next. It is usually said of a selection, with the width given in pixels. A larger radius gives a softer, wider blend, and none at all leaves a hard cut-out edge. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

   • A carpenter's feather edge is an edge made very thin; the comparison is an analogy, not an asserted historical derivation. en.wiktionary.org
   • Digital feathering creates a gradual transition in transparency over a specified distance. helpx.adobe.com
   • Feathering allows an image to blend into its background. help.apple.com
   • Selection feathering has a width commonly measured in pixels. docs.gimp.org
   • Increasing the feather radius produces a softer, wider transition. stage.flyingmeat.com
   • An unfeathered selection can have a sharp cut-out boundary. docs.gimp.org
9. 9
   propellerverbtransitive

   To rotate the blades of a stopped engine's propeller edge-on to the airstream so the propeller does not windmill and create drag in flight.

   After the engine fire, the crew feathered the propeller and continued on the remaining engine.

   Pilots feather a failed engine's propeller to reduce drag.

   Note

   A feathered propeller, like a feathered oar, has its blades turned to slip through the air rather than push against it. The verb belongs to engine failure and shutdown. A pilot feathers the propeller of the engine that has stopped, so the airflow cannot spin it like a windmill and drag the aircraft back. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • Feathering aligns propeller blades with the airflow to minimize drag. faa.gov
   • Feathering an inoperative engine's propeller stops windmilling and minimizes the resulting drag. faasafety.gov
10. 10
    turn oarsverbtransitive or intransitive

    To rotate the oar blades horizontal while they are out of the water, reducing wind resistance between strokes.

    Experienced crews feather smoothly, rolling the blades flat the instant they clear the water.

    He feathered too early and clipped the top of a wave.

    Oppositesquare

    Note

    The blade is rolled flat once it leaves the water and turned back before the next stroke. The noun names the angle itself. Aviation applies the same idea to propellers in the pilot's verb. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The oar blade is turned horizontal after leaving the water. worldrowing.com
    • The blade returns to its vertical orientation for the next stroke. usrowing.org
11. 11
    thin an edgeverbtransitive

    To make an edge thin out gradually to almost nothing, by shaving, sanding, or planing it, or by spreading an applied material such as plaster or filler more thinly toward its edge.

    Carpenters feather the edges of a patch so it disappears into the surrounding surface.

    She feathered the joint compound outward until the wall felt perfectly flat.

    Similartaper, bevel, blend

    Note

    A finishing term in carpentry and engineering: the edge is worked thinner and thinner until it disappears into the surface around it. Patches, repairs and skims of joint compound are feathered so that no ridge shows. The test is touch as much as sight, because a well-feathered edge cannot be felt. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Feathering is a carpentry and engineering term for finely shaving or beveling an edge. en.wiktionary.org
    • Feathering progressively thins an edge to blend it into the surrounding surface. lowes.com
    • Joint-compound repairs and skim coats are feathered to produce a smooth finish. usg.com
    • Touch helps assess feathering; a detectable shoulder requires further thinning and blending. hydestore.com
12. 12
    blur (ink)verbintransitive

    Of written or printed ink, to spread through the paper or other surface, producing a blurred appearance.

    Fountain pen inks often feather on thin, absorbent notebook paper.

    The printed lines feathered slightly where the paper had absorbed moisture.

    Similarspread, run, blur

    Note

    The Circular of the Bureau of Standards (1940) puts the cause on both sides: whether ink feathers depends on the paper or card and on the dye in the ink. That makes it a word for judging paper and ink together, as printers and fountain pen users do. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • The 1940 circular states that feathering depends on both the paper or card and the ink's dye. Its title page records issuance on August 7, 1940. nvlpubs.nist.gov
13. 13
    make richerverbtransitive

    To enrich a person, raise them up, or otherwise work to their benefit.

    Over twenty years, the manager quietly feathered his nest with company funds, and nobody noticed until he retired.

    Instead of fixing the roads, the new council seemed eager to feather its own nest.

    UsageToday usually in the phrase feather your own nest, often by dishonest means.

    Similarenrich, advance, benefit

    Oppositeimpoverish

    Note

    Francis Bacon pairs it with plume in 1622. The king, he reports, was said not to care "to plume his nobility and people to feather himself": to strip others in order to enrich himself. The figure survives in feather one's nest, whose bird's-nest image belongs to the literal "furnish with feathers". Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • The Bacon work containing the quotation was first published in 1622. celm.folger.edu
    • Bacon pairs plume with feather and reports the quoted criticism of the king. philological.cal.bham.ac.uk
    • Feather himself means enrich himself in this passage. en.wiktionary.org
    • The image in feather one's nest refers to furnishing a bird's nest with feathers. nhpr.org
14. 14
    cricketnouncountable

    In cricket, a faint edge, in which the ball makes barely perceptible contact with the edge of the bat.

    He got a feather on a rising delivery and was caught behind.

    Replays picked up the faintest feather as the ball brushed past the bat.

    Similarnick, edge, snick

    Note

    Cricket's lightest touch of bat on ball, named for the lightest thing that brushes past. A batter gets a feather on a delivery, and even that is enough to be caught behind. The contact can be so slight that only the sound, or a replay, gives it away. That is why a feather is so often the subject of appeals and reviews. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • A feather in cricket is a faint contact between the ball and the bat's edge. en.wikipedia.org
    • Even faint bat contact can result in dismissal caught behind. lords.org
    • Sound or replay evidence can reveal otherwise difficult-to-detect edges. icc-cricket.com
    • Faint edges can lead to disputed caught-behind decisions and reviews. icc-cricket.com
15. 15
    game birdsnoununcountableplural

    Game birds such as partridges and pheasants, as distinguished from rabbits and hares, which hunters call fur.

    The estate offers both fur and feather across its three thousand acres.

    His pointer worked feather beautifully but ignored every rabbit it flushed.

    Oppositefur

    Note

    The sportsman's collective name for winged game, always set against fur, the ground game of rabbits and hares. The pair travels together in fur and feather. It is used in the plural as well as collectively, and the singular never means one bird. A shooting estate's feather is its partridges and pheasants taken as a whole.

16. 16
    blade tilt (rowing)nouncountable

    The angle at which an oar blade or paddle-wheel float is turned, relative to the horizontal, as it enters or leaves the water.

    A clean feather keeps the blade from catching the surface on the recovery.

    Adjusting the feather of the paddle-wheel floats reduced drag as each one left the water.

    Similarangle, pitch

    Note

    The noun partner of the rower's verb: the feather is the angle, and feathering is the act of setting it. With oars it matters on the recovery. A blade turned flat meets less wind and is less likely to clip the water. On a feathering paddle wheel, each float is kept nearly vertical as it enters and leaves. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Oar feathering is used during recovery. britishrowing.org
    • Turning the blade flat reduces wind resistance and the likelihood of accidentally hitting the water. rowpnra.org
    • On a feathering paddle wheel, the floats are kept nearly vertical while submerged, rather than turned flat like oar blades during recovery. slc.ca.gov
17. 17
    nounarchaic

    A trifle; the smallest possible amount or matter; something of no weight or importance.

    To some pew purchasers he gave deeds, to others he gave, none, but both were promised security, and both it seems were equally secure, for the pew deed as Mr. Melledge declared to Mr. G. was not worth a feather.

    1823, An Ecclesiastical Memoir of Essex Street Religious Society
18. 18
    verbrare

    To make something as light as a feather; to give it wings.
19. 19
    noun

    A lengthwise strip projecting from an object, either to strengthen it or to fit into a channel in another object, preventing sideways or rotational movement while allowing motion along its length.
20. 20
    noun

    Either of the two curved metal shims of the stone-splitting tool called plug and feathers, inserted into a drilled hole so that a wedge driven between them forces the stone apart.
21. 21
    verb

    In billiards or snooker, to slide the cue backward and forward over the bridge hand while lining up a stroke on the cue ball.
22. 22
    verb

    In billiards or snooker, to accidentally touch the cue ball with the tip of the cue while taking aim.
23. 23
    noun

    An indicator mounted at an angle on a color light signal, typically showing a row of five white lights, that illuminates when the route ahead diverges at a junction.
24. 24
    verbobsolete

    Of a cockerel, to tread or mate with a hen.