Definitions

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

  • noun A growing feather still enclosed in its horny sheath, especially one just emerging through the skin.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See feather.

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

  • noun A feather not fully developed; esp., a rudimentary feather just emerging through the skin.

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

  • noun A developing feather as it emerges through the skin

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • “Long Live the Seersucker” was the headline, with a subhead that promised Mr. Ignatius was championing “a revival of cream-colored linen and balmy pinfeather.”

    Lighten Up: Rediscovering The Summer Suit 2009

  • I've killed my share of Wisconsin turkeys and have never encountered a pinfeather.

    Wait. Why was this duck taken to the hospital? Ann Althouse 2007

  • Not so much as a snowy pinfeather tickled their eyes.

    Even Cowgirls Get The Blues Robbins, Tom 1976

  • His keen teeth had not so much as ruffled its pinfeather plumage.

    Further Adventures of Lad Albert Payson Terhune 1907

  • Just to show how one of those pinfeather Passions may be shunted onto

    Ade's Fables George Ade 1905

  • Just to show how one of those pinfeather Passions may be shunted onto

    Ade's Fables George Ade 1905

  • But the Buff Rock, a melody in color, shows that consonance, that consentaneousness, of flesh to feather that makes the plucked fowl to the feathered fowl what high noon is to the faint and far-off dawn -- a glow of golden legs and golden neck, mellow, melting as butter, and all the more so with every unpicked pinfeather.

    The Hills of Hingham Dallas Lore Sharp 1899

  • He not only withdraws all objections to the nuptials, but allows he'll make the pinfeather sport an 'Abby full partners in the Sunflower.

    Wolfville Nights Alfred Henry Lewis 1885

  • Although Abby done threatens him with a gun-play to make him lead her to the altar that time her old paw creases him, an 'he begins to wax low-sperited about wedlock, still, the pinfeather party's enamoured of Abby an' wropped up in her.

    Wolfville Nights Alfred Henry Lewis 1885

  • On the level! now, 'goes on Texas to Black Jack as he pulls him off to a corner an' whispers so the pinfeather party don't hear; 'on the level, Jack! ain't it my dooty -- me who saveys what he's ag'inst -- to go warn this victim ag'in matrimony in all its horrors?'

    Wolfville Nights Alfred Henry Lewis 1885

Comments

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  • Man god or beast god,

    god that breathes in every pleated leaf,

    throat sac of frog, pinfeather and shaft--

    god of plutonium and penicillin, drunk

    sleeping on the subway grate,

    god of Joan of Arc, god of Crazy Horse,

    Lady Day, bringing us to our knees,...

    - Ellen Bass, 'God's Grief'.

    September 7, 2009