feather

A branching, hair-like structure that grows on the bodies of birds, used for flight, swimming, protection and display.

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

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.

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

One of the fins or wings on the shaft of an arrow.

A longitudinal strip projecting from an object to strengthen it, or to enter a channel in another object and thereby prevent displacement sideways or rotationally but permit motion lengthwise.

Near-synonym: spline

Kind; nature; species (from the proverbial phrase "birds of a feather").

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

To cover or furnish with feathers; (when of an arrow) to fletch.

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

Olondaw had taught Hazeleye how to use her bow and arrows, and that each might know the result of his or her own shooting, he had feathered her arrow with white and his own with red. How strange are the events of this life, […]

To adorn, as if with feathers; to fringe.

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

To arrange in the manner or appearance of feathers.

The stylist feathered my hair.

To rotate the oars while they are out of the water to reduce wind resistance.

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.

A surname.

A surname.