PLUME

I. noun see: fleece Date: 14th century a feather of a bird: as, a large conspicuous or showy feather, contour feather , plumage , a cluster of distinctive feathers, 2. material (as a feather, cluster of feathers, or a tuft of hair) worn as an ornament, a token of honor or prowess ; prize , something resembling a feather (as in shape, appearance, or lightness): as, a plumose appendage of a plant, an elongated and usually open and mobile column or band (as of smoke, exhaust gases, or blowing snow), an animal structure having a main shaft bearing many hairs or filamentous parts, any of several columns of molten rock rising from the earth's lower mantle that are theorized to drive tectonic plate movement and to underlie hot spots, II. transitive verb (~d; pluming) Date: 15th century 1. to provide or deck with feathers, to array showily, to indulge (oneself) in pride with an obvious or vain display of self-satisfaction, 3. of a bird to preen and arrange the feathers of (itself), to preen and arrange (feathers)