pinfeather

[ pin-feth-er ]

/ ˈpɪnˌfɛð ər /

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noun Ornithology.

an undeveloped feather before the web portions have expanded.

a feather just coming through the skin.

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His boss, whom he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

His boss, who he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

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Origin of pinfeather

First recorded in 1765–75; pin + feather

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use pinfeather in a sentence

There is a kind of pin-feather gentility which seems to have a settled aversion to using the terms man and woman.
The Verbalist|Thomas Embly Osmun, (AKA Alfred Ayres)
The other chickens never would let him raise a pin-feather ter cover his nakedness; they picked on him suthin awful.
The Corner House Girls Under Canvas|Grace Brooks Hill
There is not the slightest sign of a pin feather, even, on your pretty white shoulders.
Letters of Peregrine Pickle|George P. Upton
They start up at the first distant approach of the financier, every plume and pin-feather quivering.
Captain Macedoine's Daughter|William McFee

Or take a plucked hen and draw roughly the pin-feather scheme as you find it on her body.
The Spring of the Year|Dallas Lore Sharp

British Dictionary definitions for pinfeather

pinfeather

/ (ˈpɪnˌfɛðə) /

noun

ornithol a feather emerging from the skin and still enclosed in its horny sheath

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012