FEATHER

vt to tread, as a cock.

2. feather ·vi to turn to a horizontal plane;

— said of oars.

3. feather ·vt to render light as a feather; to give wings to.

4. feather ·noun a tuft of peculiar, long, frizzly hair on a horse.

5. feather ·vt to adorn, as with feathers; to fringe.

6. feather ·vt to furnish with a feather or feathers, as an arrow or a cap.

7. feather ·noun the fringe of long hair on the legs of the setter and some other dogs.

8. feather ·noun one of the fins or wings on the shaft of an arrow.

9. feather ·vi to have the appearance of a feather or of feathers; to be or to appear in feathery form.

10. feather ·vt to enrich; to exalt; to benefit.

11. feather ·vi to grow or form feathers; to become feathered;

— often with out; as, the birds are feathering out.

12. feather ·noun kind; nature; species;

— from the proverbial phrase, "birds of a feather," that is, of the same species.

13. feather ·noun one of the peculiar dermal appendages, of several kinds, belonging to birds, as contour feathers, quills, and down.

14. feather ·vi to curdle when poured into another liquid, and float about in little flakes or "feathers;" as, the cream feathers.

15. feather ·noun a thin wedge driven between the two semicylindrical parts of a divided plug in a hole bored in a stone, to rend the stone.

xvi. feather ·noun the angular adjustment of an oar or paddle-wheel float, with reference to a horizontal axis, as it leaves or enters the water.

xvii. feather ·noun 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.