: any of the light, horny, epidermal outgrowths that form the external covering of the body of birds
Note:
Feathers include the smaller down feathers and the larger contour and flight feathers. Larger feathers consist of a shaft (rachis) bearing branches (barbs) which bear smaller branches (barbules). These smaller branches bear tiny hook-bearing processes (barbicels) which interlock with the barbules of an adjacent barb to link the barbs into a continuous stiff vane. Down feathers lack barbules, resulting in fluffy feathers which provide insulation below the contour feathers.
Noun
they are a very sports-minded couple, and most of their friends are of the same feather
prom couples strutted into the ballroom in full feather
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Noun
Nazis broke glass and plates in his family’s apartment and carved up feather mattresses.—Joe Marusak, Charlotte Observer, 15 May 2025 Its body has a darker brown coloring with speckles of white throughout, extending into long tail feathers.—Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 14 May 2025
Verb
While paleontologists don’t know exactly when feathered, landbound dinosaurs gained the ability to fly, most scholars agree that Archaeopteryx is the earliest known bird.—Margherita Bassi, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 May 2025 Thankfully, players can turn it off with a flick of a switch so the Valor Pro works for racing games, That’s a genre where players need to feather the throttle on the triggers to speed out of a turn.—Gieson Cacho, Mercury News, 12 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for feather
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English fether, from Old English; akin to Old High German federa wing, Latin petere to go to, seek, Greek petesthai to fly, piptein to fall, pteron wing
First Known Use
Noun
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
: one of the light horny epidermal outgrowths that form the external covering of the body of birds and that consist of a shaft bearing on each side a series of barbs which bear barbules which in turn bear barbicels commonly ending in the hooked processes and interlocking with the barbules of an adjacent barb to link the barbs into a continuous vane
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