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Feather vs Umbilicus - What's the difference?

feather | umbilicus |

As nouns the difference between feather and umbilicus

is that feather is a branching, hair-like structure that grows on the bodies of birds, used for flight, swimming, protection and display while umbilicus is (anatomy) navel.

As a verb feather

is to cover or furnish with feathers.

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

    * *

    umbilicus

    English

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (anatomy) navel
  • (botany) hilum
  • (zoology) A depression or opening in the center of the base of many spiral shells.
  • (zoology) Either of the two apertures in the calamus of a feather.
  • (geometry, obsolete) One of the foci of an ellipse or other curve.
  • (geometry) A point of a surface at which the curvatures of the normal sections are all equal to each other.
    • A sphere may be osculatory to the surface in every direction at an umbilicus .
  • (historical) An ornamented or painted ball or boss fastened at each end of the stick on which manuscripts were rolled.

    • Synonyms

    * (navel) omphalos * (navel) omphalus

    Derived terms

    * umbilical * umbilical artery * umbilical cord * umbilical hernia * umbilical vein