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Parts of a feather:
1. vane
2. rachis, shaft
3. barbs
4. hyporachis, afterfeather
5. calamus, quill
Feathers on a Clydesdale horse

Alternative forms[edit]


From Middle English fether, from Old English feþer, from Proto-Germanic *feþrō, from Proto-Indo-European *péth₂r̥ ~ pth₂én- (feather, wing), from *peth₂- (to fly). The Indo-European root is also the source of Greek πέτομαι (petomai), Albanian shpend (bird), Latin penna, Old Armenian թիռ (tʿiṙ).



feather (plural feathers)

  1. A branching, hair-like structure that grows on the wings of birds that allows their wings to create lift.
    • 1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Beasts of Tarzan, chapter V
    • 2000, C. J. Puotinen, The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care‎, page 362
    • Shakespeare
      I am not of that feather to shake off / My friend when he must need me.



  • (horse hair at rear of lower legs): spats

Derived terms[edit]




  1. To cover or furnish with feathers.
    • L'Estrange
      An eagle had the ill hap to be struck with an arrow feathered from her own wing.
  2. To arrange in the manner or appearance of feathers.
    The stylist feathered my hair.
  4. (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 doesn't windmill as the aircraft flies.
    After striking the bird, the pilot feathered the left, damaged engine's propeller.
  5. (carpentry, engineering) To finely shave or bevel an edge.
  7. To adorn, as with feathers; to fringe.
    • Sir Walter Scott
      A few birches and oaks still feathered the narrow ravines.
    • Loveday
      The Polonian story perhaps may feather some tedious hours.
  9. To enrich; to exalt; to benefit.
    • Francis Bacon
      They stuck not to say that the king cared not to plume his nobility and people to feather himself.
  10. To tread, as a cock.

Derived terms[edit]

