plumage

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Related to plumage: eclipse plumage

plum·age

(plo͞o′mĭj)

1. The covering of feathers on a bird.

2. Feathers used ornamentally.

3. Elaborate dress; finery.

[Middle English, from Old French, from plume, plume, from Latin plūma.]

plum′aged adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

plumage

(ˈpluːmɪdʒ)

(Zoology) the layer of feathers covering the body of a bird

[C15: from Old French, from plume feather, from Latin plūma down]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

plum•age

(ˈplu mɪdʒ)

n.

the entire feathery covering of a bird.

[1375–1425; late Middle English < Middle French. See plume, -age]

plum′aged, adj.

plum·age

(plo͞o′mĭj)

The covering of feathers on a bird.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

plumage - the light horny waterproof structure forming the external covering of birds

feather, plume

bird - warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates characterized by feathers and forelimbs modified as wings

down, down feather - soft fine feathers

aftershaft - a supplementary feather (usually small) on the underside of the base of the shaft of some feathers in some birds

contour feather - feathers covering the body of an adult bird and determining its shape

spurious wing, alula - tuft of small stiff feathers on the first digit of a bird's wing

marabou - the downy feathers of marabou storks are used for trimming garments

web, vane - the flattened weblike part of a feather consisting of a series of barbs on either side of the shaft

hackle - long slender feather on the necks of e.g. turkeys and pheasants

quill, calamus, shaft - the hollow spine of a feather

flight feather, quill feather, pinion, quill - any of the larger wing or tail feathers of a bird

scapular - a feather covering the shoulder of a bird

body covering - any covering for the body or a body part

ceratin, keratin - a fibrous scleroprotein that occurs in the outer layer of the skin and in horny tissues such as hair, feathers, nails, and hooves

animal material - material derived from animals

melanin - insoluble pigments that account for the color of e.g. skin and scales and feathers

plumage

noun feathers, down, plumes razorbills with their handsome black and white plumage

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

ريش الطُّيور

opeřenípeří

fjerdragt

Gefieder

φτέρωμα

höyhenethöyhenpeitehöyhenpuku

livrée plumage

tolltollazat

fjaîrir, fjaîraskraut

piumaggio

羽毛

apspalvojums

fjærdrakt

operenie

tüy

羽毛

plumage

[ˈpluːmɪdʒ] N → plumaje m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

plumage

[ˈpluːmɪdʒ] n → plumage m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

plumage

n → Gefieder nt, → Federkleid nt (liter)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

plumage

[ˈpluːmɪdʒ] n → piume fpl, piumaggio

plumage

(ˈpluːmidʒ) noun

the feathers of a bird or birds. The peacock has (a) brilliant plumage.

References in classic literature ?

The other birds, recognising their own borrowed plumage, indignantly protested, and began to strip him.

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The plan was adopted, the necessary treaty made, with legislation to carry out its provisions; the Madagascarene Philosopher took his seat in the Temple of Immortality, and Peace spread her white wings over the two nations, to the unspeakable defiling of her plumage.

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The rock-thrush of Guiana, birds of Paradise, and some others, congregate; and successive males display their gorgeous plumage and perform strange antics before the females, which standing by as spectators, at last choose the most attractive partner.

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But the child, unaccustomed to the touch or familiarity of any but her mother, escaped through the open window, and stood on the upper step, looking like a wild tropical bird of rich plumage, ready to take flight into the upper air.

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As yet the knights held their long lances upright, their bright points glancing to the sun, and the streamers with which they were decorated fluttering over the plumage of the helmets.

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One day, when he had been left alone for a few minutes, a bird with brilliant plumage came and fluttered round the window, and finally rested on the sill.

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Other poets have warbled the praises of the soft eye of the antelope, and the lovely plumage of the bird that never alights; less celestial, I celebrate a tail.

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All at once there began the most horrid, unearthly screaming, which at first startled me badly, though I had soon remembered the voice of Captain Flint and even thought I could make out the bird by her bright plumage as she sat perched upon her master's wrist.

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'Scarce had the rubicund Apollo spread o'er the face of the broad spacious earth the golden threads of his bright hair, scarce had the little birds of painted plumage attuned their notes to hail with dulcet and mellifluous harmony the coming of the rosy Dawn, that, deserting the soft couch of her jealous spouse, was appearing to mortals at the gates and balconies of the Manchegan horizon, when the renowned knight Don Quixote of La Mancha, quitting the lazy down, mounted his celebrated steed Rocinante and began to traverse the ancient and famous Campo de Montiel;'" which in fact he was actually traversing.

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For an instant they both remained motionless, and then the yellow hen shook her wings to settle the feathers and walked toward the door with a strut of proud defiance and a cluck of victory, while the speckled rooster limped away to the group of other chickens, trailing his crumpled plumage in the dust as he went.

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At times, it seemed as if for every one of the hundred blossoms there was one of these tiniest fowls of the air,--a thumb's bigness of burnished plumage, hovering and vibrating about the bean-poles.

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The remaining land-birds form a most singular group of finches, related to each other in the structure of their beaks, short tails, form of body and plumage: there are thirteen species, which Mr.