Definitions

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

  • noun A down feather.
  • noun The young shoot of a plant embryo above the cotyledons, consisting of the epicotyl and often of immature leaves.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In ornithology, a down-feather; a feather of plumulaceous structure throughout.
  • noun In entomology: A little plume-like organ or ornament.
  • noun One of the peculiar obcordate scales found on the wings of certain lepidopterous insects, as Pieridæ.
  • noun The bud of the ascending axis of a plant while still in the embryo, situated at the apex of the caulicle (or radicle), above the base of the cotyledon or cotyledons, and inclosed by them when there are two or more.

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

  • noun (Bot.) The first bud, or gemmule, of a young plant; the bud, or growing point, of the embryo, above the cotyledons. See Illust. of radicle.
  • noun A down feather.
  • noun The aftershaft of a feather. See Illust. under Feather.
  • noun One of the featherlike scales of certain male butterflies.

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

  • noun botany The first bud, or gemmule, of a young plant; the bud, or growing point, of the embryo, above the cotyledons.
  • noun zoology A down feather.
  • noun zoology The aftershaft of a feather.
  • noun zoology One of the featherlike scales of certain male butterflies.

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

  • noun down feather of young birds; persists in some adult birds

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin plūmula, diminutive of plūma, feather.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin plumula, diminutive of pluma "feather"; compare French plumule.

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Examples

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  • the up of down

    August 25, 2009