FEATHERY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does feathery mean? 

• FEATHERY (adjective)
  The adjective FEATHERY has 3 senses:

1. resembling or suggesting a feather or feathers

2. characterized by a covering of feathers

3. adorned with feathers or plumes

  Familiarity information: FEATHERY used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FEATHERY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Resembling or suggesting a feather or feathers

Synonyms:

featherlike; feathery

Context example:

feathery palm trees

Similar:

feathered (having or covered with feathers)

Derivation:

feather (the light horny waterproof structure forming the external covering of birds)

featheriness (a light softness)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Characterized by a covering of feathers

Context example:

the feathery congregation of jays

Similar:

feathered (having or covered with feathers)

Derivation:

feather (the light horny waterproof structure forming the external covering of birds)

featheriness (a light softness)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Adorned with feathers or plumes

Synonyms:

feathered; feathery; plumy

Context example:

a feathered hat

Similar:

adorned; decorated (provided with something intended to increase its beauty or distinction)

Derivation:

feather (the light horny waterproof structure forming the external covering of birds)

featheriness (a light softness)

 Context examples 

We know dinosaurs eventually evolved feathery wings and became today's birds, but besides Yi qi, there wasn't any prior evidence in the fossil record to suggest this type of non-avian flight.

(Second Bat-Like Dinosaur Discovered in China, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Mr. Hungerton, her father, really was the most tactless person upon earth,—a fluffy, feathery, untidy cockatoo of a man, perfectly good-natured, but absolutely centered upon his own silly self.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They overhung the archway, thrust themselves between the bars of the great gate with a sweet welcome to passers-by, and lined the avenue, winding through lemon trees and feathery palms up to the villa on the hill.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I had not seen a coal fire, since I had left England three years ago: though many a wood fire had I watched, as it crumbled into hoary ashes, and mingled with the feathery heap upon the hearth, which not inaptly figured to me, in my despondency, my own dead hopes.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

There was a pale-green foreground of feathery vegetation, which sloped upwards and ended in a line of cliffs dark red in color, and curiously ribbed like some basaltic formations which I have seen.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)