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feather merchant

American  

noun

Older Slang.

  1. a person who avoids responsibility and effort; loafer.

Etymology

Origin of feather merchant

First recorded in 1775–85

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

That was enough to get Manhattan's Murray Sears, big U.S. feather merchant, to book passage to South Africa last week to buy up all the fine feathers he could find.

From Time Magazine Archive

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.