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Feather vs Pinion - What's the difference?

feather | pinion |

As nouns the difference between feather and pinion

is that feather is a branching, hair-like structure that grows on the bodies of birds, used for flight, swimming, protection and display while pinion is a wing.

As verbs the difference between feather and pinion

is that feather is to cover or furnish with feathers while pinion is to cut off the pinion of a bird’s wing, or otherwise disable or bind its wings, in order to prevent it from flying.

feather

English

(wikipedia feather)

Alternative forms

* fether

Noun

(en noun)
  • A branching, hair-like structure that grows on the bodies of birds, used for flight, swimming, protection and display.
  • * 1873 , W. K. Brooks, "A Feather", Popular Science Monthly , volume IV, page 687
    • Notice, too, that the shaft is not straight, but bent so that the upper surface of the feather is convex, and the lower concave.
  • * 1914 , , The Beasts of Tarzan , chapter V
    • Big fellows they were, all of them, their barbaric headdresses and grotesquely painted faces, together with their many metal ornaments and gorgeously coloured feathers , adding to their wild, fierce appearance.
  • * 2000 , C. J. Puotinen, The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care? , page 362
    • Nesting birds pluck some of their own feathers' to line the nest, but ' feather plucking in pet birds is entirely different.
  • Long hair on the lower legs of a dog or horse, especially a draft horse, notably the Clydesdale breed. Narrowly only the rear hair.
  • One of the fins or wings on the shaft of an arrow.
  • A longitudinal strip projecting from an object to strengthen it, or to enter a channel in another object and thereby prevent displacement sideways but permit motion lengthwise; a spline.
  • Kind; nature; species (from the proverbial phrase "birds of a feather").
  • * Shakespeare
    • I am not of that feather to shake off / My friend when he must need me.
  • One of the two shims of the three-piece stone-splitting tool known as (plug and feather) or plug and feathers; the feathers are placed in a borehole and then a wedge is driven between them, causing the stone to split.
    • (Knight)
  • The angular adjustment of an oar or paddle-wheel float, with reference to a horizontal axis, as it leaves or enters the water.

    • Synonyms

    * (horse hair) feathers, feathering, horsefeathers

    Antonyms

    * (horse hair at rear of lower legs) spats

    Derived terms

    {{der3, afterfeather , birds of a feather , contour feather , featherback , featherbed , featherbedding , featherbrain , feather-brained , featherdown , feather duster , featherhead , featherily , featheriness , feathering float , feathering screw , feathering strip , feathering wheel , feather in one's cap , feather in one's hat , featherless , featherlight , featherlike , feather pen , feathertail , featherweight , featherwood , feather wool , featherwork , feathery , fine feathers make fine birds , flight feather , horsefeathers , light as a feather}}

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cover or furnish with feathers.
  • * L'Estrange
    • An eagle had the ill hap to be struck with an arrow feathered from her own wing.
  • To arrange in the manner or appearance of feathers.
    • The stylist feathered my hair.
  • (ambitransitive, rowing) To rotate the oars while they are out of the water to reduce wind resistance.
  • (aeronautics) To streamline the blades of an aircraft's propeller by rotating them perpendicular to the axis of the propeller when the engine is shut down so that the propeller doesn't windmill as the aircraft flies.
    • After striking the bird, the pilot feathered the left, damaged engine's propeller.
  • (carpentry, engineering) To finely shave or bevel an edge.
  • (computer graphics) To intergrade or blend the pixels of an image with those of a background or neighboring image.
  • To adorn, as with feathers; to fringe.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • A few birches and oaks still feathered the narrow ravines.
  • To render light as a feather; to give wings to.
  • * Loveday
    • The Polonian story perhaps may feather some tedious hours.
  • To enrich; to exalt; to benefit.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • They stuck not to say that the king cared not to plume his nobility and people to feather himself.
    (Dryden)
  • To tread, as a cock.
    • (Dryden)

    Derived terms

    * feathered * feather one's nest * feather one's own nest * tar and feather

    References

    * Horse Glossary * Horses Glossary * Cowboy Dictionary] – [http://www.cowboyway.com/Dictionary/Letter-F.htm Cowboy F: Feather

    Anagrams

    * *

    pinion

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) pignon, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A wing.
  • * , II.v
    • Therefore do nimble-pinion' d doves draw Love, / And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Swift on his sooty pinions flits the gnome.
  • * 1839 ,
    • Never seraph spread a pinion / Over fabric half so fair.
  • The joint of a bird's wing farthest from the body.
    • (Johnson)
  • Any of the outermost primary feathers on a bird's wing.
  • * , III.xii
    • An argument that he is pluck'd, when hither / He sends so poor a pinion of his wing
  • A moth of the genus Lithophane .
  • (obsolete) A fetter for the arm.
    • (Ainsworth)

    Verb

    (en verb) :; (lb)
  • (lb) To cut off the pinion of a bird’s wing, or otherwise disable or bind its wings, in order to prevent it from flying.
  • * 1577 , (Barnabe Googe) (translator), (Konrad Heresbach) (author), Foure Bookes of Husbandrie , book iv (1586), page 169:
    • They that meane to fatte Pigions…some…do softly tie their Legges:…some vse onely to pinion them.
  • * 1641–2 , Henry Best (author), Donald Woodward (editor), The Farming and Memorandum Books of Henry Best of Elmswell, 1642: With a Glossary and Linguistic Commentary by Peter McClure , (Oxford University Press)/(British Academy) (1984), ISBN 0197260292 (10), ISBN 9780197260296 (13), page 115:
    • When they are aboute fortnights olde (for they must bee driven noe longer) yow must watch where the henne useth to sitte on nights, and come when it beginneth to bee darke and throwe somethinge over the henne as shee broodeth them, then take and clippe every of theire right wings. Then when they are aboute moneths old, yow must come after the same manner and pinnion or cutte a joynte of every of theire right winges.
  • * ibidem , page 129:
    • The Swanners gette up the younge swannes about midsummer [24 June] and footemarke them for the owners, and then doe they allsoe pinnion them, cuttinge a joynte of theire right winges, and then att Michaellmasse [29 Sept.] doe they bringe them hoame, or else bringe hoame some, and leave the rest att some of the mills and wee sende for them.
  • * 1665–7 , (Abraham Cowley), The Works of Mr Abraham Cowley (fifth edition, 1678), “Several Di?cour?es by way of E??ays, in Ver?e and Pro?e”, essay 9: ‘The ?hortne?s of Life and uncertainty of Riches’, closing verses, verse 3 ( page 138):
    • Suppo?e, thou Fortune could to tamene?s bring, // And clip or pinion her wing; // Suppo?e thou could’?t on Fate ?o far prevail // As not to cut off thy Entail.
  • * 1727 , Peter Longueville, Philip Quarll (1816), page 67:
    • The two old ducks…being pinioned , could not fly away.
  • * 1849 , Daniel Jay Browne, The American Poultry Yard (1855), page 242:
    • They…should have been pinioned at the first joint of the wing.
  • (lb) To bind the arms of any one, so as to deprive him of their use; to disable by so binding; to shackle.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
    • , title= , chapter=1 citation , passage=“[…] Captain Markam had been found lying half-insensible, gagged and bound, on the floor of the sitting-room, his hands and feet tightly pinioned , and a woollen comforter wound closely round his mouth and neck?; whilst Mrs. Markham's jewel-case, containing valuable jewellery and the secret plans of Port Arthur, had disappeared. […]”}}
  • * 1916 , , Macmillan Press Ltd, paperback, page 80
    • Nash pinioned his arms behind while Boland seized a long cabbage stump which was lying in the gutter.
  • #
  • #* , V.ii
  • Know, sir that I / Will not wait pinion' d at your master's court, / Nor once be chastis'd with the sober eye / Of dull Octavia.
  • #* 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter IX
  • I was suddenly seized from behind and thrown to earth. As I fell, a warm body fell on top of me, and hands grasped my arms and legs. When I could look up, I saw a number of giant fingers pinioning me down, while others stood about surveying me.
  • # To bind fast to something, or together.
    • Derived terms
    * * *
    References
    * “ Pinion, v.'']” listed on page 883/2–3 of volume VII (O–P, ed. , 1908) of ''[[w:Oxford English Dictionary, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles] (1st ed.)

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) pignon.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The smallest gear in a gear drive train.
  • * 1844 ,
    • A certain period elapses, and some unseen mysterious principle again sets in motion the magic pinions and the wizard wheels.
    Derived terms
    * rack and pinion English terms with transferred senses