Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Stripped of a plume or plumes; hence, figuratively, humbled; brought down.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • And then these jingling jays with plume-plucked wings,

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, October 22, 1892 Various

  • Ye failed not nor abased your plume-plucked wings;

    Poems & Ballads (Second Series) Swinburne's Poems Volume III Algernon Charles Swinburne 1873

  • And plume-plucked gaol-birds for thy starveling peers

    Poems & Ballads (Second Series) Swinburne's Poems Volume III Algernon Charles Swinburne 1873

  • Whose hand may curb or clip thy plume-plucked wings?

    A Midsummer Holiday and Other Poems Algernon Charles Swinburne 1873

  • Shall shrink and subside and praise thee: and wisdom, with plume-plucked wings,

    Poems and Ballads (Third Series) Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne—Vol. III Algernon Charles Swinburne 1873

  • I really want us to date, if only so we can break up and I can call him a spleeny swag-bellied ratsbane and a fobbing plume-plucked hedge-pig, and he can respond by shouting "Fie on thee, poxy harlot!" and then writing "You Can't Do That."

    NOGOODFORME.COM 2010

  • Well, then, the hour was drawing nigh when we had to present ourselves before that company of men of genius, each with his own crow; and I was still unprovided; and yet I thought it would be stupid to fail of such a madcap bagatelle; [3] but what particularly weighed upon my mind was that I did not choose to lend the light of my countenance in that illustrious sphere to some miserable plume-plucked scarecrow.

    The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini Cellini, Benvenuto, 1500-1571 1910

  • Well, then, the hour was drawing nigh when we had to present ourselves before that company of men of genius, each with his own crow; and I was still unprovided; and yet I thought it would be stupid to fail of such a madcap bagatelle; 3 but what particularly weighed upon my mind was that I did not choose to lend the light of my countenance in that illustrious sphere to some miserable plume-plucked scarecrow.

    XXX 1909

  • Well, then, the hour was drawing nigh when we had to present ourselves before that company of men of genius, each with his own crow; and I was still unprovided; and yet I thought it would be stupid to fail of such a madcap bagatelle; [3] but what particularly weighed upon my mind was that I did not choose to lend the light of my countenance in that illustrious sphere to some miserable plume-plucked scarecrow.

    Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini Benvenuto Cellini 1535

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