feathers

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of feather.

   The molting goose left feathers scattered across the lawn.

   Hunters once traded eagle feathers for tools and cloth.

   Note

   A regular plural that reaches well beyond birds. It also names the long hair on a draft horse's lower legs, the vanes on an arrow shaft, and the shims of the stonecutter's plug and feathers, where the plural is part of the tool's name. The "kind" sense resists it, since birds of a feather keeps the singular. The same spelling also serves the present-tense verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of feather.

   The rower feathers each blade to cut wind resistance on the recovery.

   The pilot feathers the propeller when one engine fails.

   Note

   Agreement with a single subject: she feathers, the pilot feathers. Most of the verb's work is technical. Rowers feather oars on the recovery, pilots feather a shut-down engine's propeller, and woodworkers feather an edge by beveling it. The rowing use can drop its object entirely, so a crew simply feathers, while the aviation and carpentry uses keep theirs.

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