From Middle English feþer, from Old English feþer, from Proto-West Germanic *feþru, from Proto-Germanic *feþrō, from Proto-Indo-European *péth₂r̥, from *peth₂- ("to fly").

See also Western Frisian fear, nds-de Fedder, Dutch veder, veer, German Feder, Yiddish פֿעדער, Danish fjer, Swedish fjäder, Icelandic fjöður, Faroese fjøður, Norwegian Bokmål fjær, fjør, Norwegian Nynorsk fjør. Also Ancient Greek πέτομαι, Albanian shpend, Latin penna, xcl թիռ.

• (RP) IPA: /ˈfɛð.ə(ɹ)/
• (America) IPA: /ˈfɛð.ɚ/

feather (plural feathers)

1. A branching, hair-like structure that grows on the bodies of birds, used for flight, swimming, protection and display.
   • 1873, W. K. Brooks, “A Feather”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume IV, page 687:

     Notice, too, that the shaft is not straight, but bent so that the upper surface of the feather is convex, and the lower concave.

   • 1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter V, in The Beasts of Tarzan:

     Big fellows they were, all of them, their barbaric headdresses and grotesquely painted faces, together with their many metal ornaments and gorgeously coloured feathers, adding to their wild, fierce appearance.

   • 2000, C. J. Puotinen, The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care, page 362:

     Nesting birds pluck some of their own feathers to line the nest, but feather plucking in pet birds is entirely different.

2. Long hair on the lower legs of a dog or horse, especially a draft horse, notably the Clydesdale breed. Narrowly only the rear hair.

   Synonyms: feathers, feathering, horsefeathers

   Antonyms: spats

3. One of the fins or wings on the shaft of an arrow.
4. A longitudinal strip projecting from an object to strengthen it, or to enter a channel in another object and thereby prevent displacement sideways but permit motion lengthwise; a spline.
5. Kind; nature; species (from the proverbial phrase "birds of a feather").
   • c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene i]:

     I am not of that feather to shake off / My friend when he must need me.

6. One of the two shims of the three-piece stone-splitting tool known as plug and feather or plug and feathers; the feathers are placed in a borehole and then a wedge is driven between them, causing the stone to split.
7. The angular adjustment of an oar or paddle-wheel float, with reference to a horizontal axis, as it leaves or enters the water.
8. Anything petty or trifling; a whit or jot.
   • 1823, An Ecclesiastical Memoir of Essex Street Religious Society:

     To some pew purchasers he gave deeds, to others he gave, none, but both were promised security, and both it seems were equally secure, for the pew deed as Mr. Melledge declared to Mr. G. was not worth a feather.

9. (hunting, in the plural) Partridges and pheasants, as opposed to rabbits and hares (called fur).
10. (rail) A junction indicator attached to a colour-light signal at an angle, which lights up, typically with four white lights in a row, when a diverging route is set up.

• plume (archaic, literary and poetic), pluma (archaic)

• French: plume
• German: Feder, Vogelfeder
• Italian: piuma, penna
• Portuguese: pluma, pena
• Russian: перо́
• Spanish: pluma

• French: fanon
• Italian: barbetta

feather (feathers, present participle feathering; simple past and past participle feathered)

1. To cover or furnish with feathers; (when of an, arrow) to fletch.
   • 1692, Roger L'Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC ↗:

     An Eagle had the ill Hap to be Struck with an Arrow Feather'd from her own Wing.

2. To adorn, as if with feathers; to fringe.
   • 1816, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter II, in Tales of My Landlord, […], volume II (Old Mortality), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for William Blackwood, […]; London: John Murray, […], →OCLC ↗, page 28 ↗:

     A few birches and oaks still feathered the narrow ravines, or occupied in dwarf clusters the hollow plains of the moor.

3. To arrange in the manner or appearance of feathers.

   The stylist feathered my hair.

4. (ambitransitive, rowing) To rotate the oars while they are out of the water to reduce wind resistance.
5. (aeronautics) To streamline the blades of an aircraft's propeller by rotating them perpendicular to the axis of the propeller when the engine is shut down so that the propeller does not windmill during flight.

   After striking the bird, the pilot feathered the damaged left engine’s propeller.

6. (carpentry, engineering) To finely shave or bevel an edge.
7. (computer graphics) To intergrade or blend the pixels of an image with those of a background or neighboring image.
8. (intransitive) Of written or printed ink: to take on a blurry appearance as a result of spreading through the receiving medium.
9. (transitive) To render light as a feather; to give wings to.
   • c. 1650, Robert Loveday, letter to Mr. C.

     The Polonian story, which perhaps may feather some tedious hours.

10. (transitive) To enrich; to exalt; to benefit.
    • 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC ↗:

      They stuck not to say that the king cared not to plume his nobility and people to feather himself.

11. (transitive) To tread, as a cockerel.
    • 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Cock and the Fox: Or, The Tale of the Nun's Priest, from Chaucer”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗:

      Ardent in love […] He feather'd her a hundred times a day.

12. (snooker, billiards) To move the cue back and forth along the bridge in preparation for striking the cue ball.
13. (snooker, billiards) To accidentally touch the cue ball with the tip of the cue when taking aim.
14. (transitive) To touch lightly, like (or as if with) a feather.
15. (transitive) To move softly, like a feather.
    • 2005, Radclyffe, Justice Served, Bold Strokes Books Inc (ISBN 9781602822665):

      She feathered her fingers through Mitchell's hair. “Besides, I like you a whole lot better than Frye.”

• German: befiedern

• French: mettre en drapeau

• As an occupational English name, from feather, used to refer to quilt makers, feather traders, etc.
• As an Americanized German - surname, from Feder.

1. Surname.
   1. Surname.
   2. Surname.

      Synonyms: Feder