Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Plumage.
  • noun The feathers fitted to an arrow.
  • noun A fringe of hair on an animal's coat, especially on a dog's leg.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In violin-playing, a very light and delicate use of the bow.
  • noun Plumage.
  • noun The adjustment of feathers to an arrow, whether shaft or bolt. See arrow, vireton.
  • noun In architecture, an arrangement of small arcs or foils separated by projecting points or cusps, used as ornaments in the molding of arches, etc., in pointed medieval architecture; foliation. See cusp.
  • noun Same as feather, 2 .
  • noun In the aquatint process, the application of strong acid to the plate, to bite in dark touches. See aquatint.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Arch.) Same as foliation.
  • noun The act of turning the blade of the oar, as it rises from the water in rowing, from a vertical to a horizontal position. See To feather an oar, under Feather, v. t.
  • noun A covering of feathers.
  • noun (Naut.) the float or paddle of a feathering wheel.
  • noun (Naut.) a screw propeller, of which the blades may be turned so as to move edgewise through the water when the vessel is moving under sail alone.
  • noun (Naut.) a paddle wheel whose floats turn automatically so as to dip about perpendicularly into the water and leave in it the same way, avoiding beating on the water in the descent and lifting water in the ascent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of feather.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun turning an oar parallel to the water between pulls

Etymologies

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Examples

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  • In glassmaking, the process of dragging a tool across a series of trails while they are semi-molten to create a feather-like pattern. See also combed decoration.

    November 9, 2007