feathering

Pluralfeatherings (some meanings)

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of feather.

   Feathering the throttle gently, the pilot eased the plane onto the runway.

   He spent the whole evening feathering arrows for the morning hunt.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every use of the verb, including the specialist ones. A rower feathering turns the oar blades in the air to cut wind resistance, and a pilot feathering a stopped engine's propeller turns the blades so it will not windmill. Rowers use it with or without an object (they were feathering; feathering the oars). The noun with its plural featherings, as in a bird's plumage, is a separate word.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The plumage of a bird; its overall covering of feathers.

   The pheasant's iridescent feathering shimmered in the autumn light.

   Dense feathering insulates waterfowl against the cold of icy water.

   Similarplumage

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A texture or surface appearance that resembles feathers.

   The artist added subtle feathering to soften the harsh brushstrokes.

   A faint feathering of cloud spread across the evening sky.

   Note

   Botanists use it countably for the fine feather-like lines marking a petal. Paxton's Magazine of Botany (1834) describes one petal as "without featherings" while its neighbors are "neatly feathered." As a mass noun it names the soft effect in general, as in a feathering of cloud. In the plural it counts the individual markings.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The fine offshoots that spread out from ink trails when writing on overly absorbent paper.

   The fountain pen produced noticeable feathering on the uncoated notebook.

   Calligraphers avoid absorbent stock because feathering blurs their finest lines.

   Similarspreading

   Note

   In writing it is a fault, not an ornament. Wet ink creeps along the fibers of paper with too little sizing and sends hairlines out from every stroke, so a crisp line turns fuzzy. It comes up mostly when fountain pens meet uncoated, absorbent stock. Resisting it is one of the qualities good writing paper is chosen for.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The fitting of feathers to the shaft of an arrow.

   The feathering of war arrows was skilled, time-consuming work.

   Medieval craftsmen learned feathering as one part of their trade.

   Similarfletching

6. 6
   noununcountable

   A pattern of small arcs or foils divided by projecting cusps, forming a feather-like ornament along the inner moldings of an arch.

   The cathedral's arches displayed intricate feathering along their inner edges.

   Restorers carefully repaired the worn feathering above the chapel doorway.

   Similarcusping, foliation

   Note

   In architecture the feather is purely a likeness. No plumes are carved, only a row of small arcs, the foils, meeting in sharp projecting points, the cusps. Run along the inner curve of an arch, those points read like the barbs of a feather. The word names the whole carved band, so it is the feathering that wears away or is repaired, not a single cusp.

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