Puff vs Feather - What's the difference?

As nouns the difference between puff and feather

is that puff is (colloquial) brothel, bordello while feather is a branching, hair-like structure that grows on the bodies of birds, used for flight, swimming, protection and display.

As a verb feather is

to cover or furnish with feathers.

puff

English

Noun

(countable) A sharp exhalation of a small amount of breath through the mouth.

(uncountable) The ability to breathe easily while exerting oneself.

out of puff

(countable) A small quantity of gas or smoke in the air.

puff of smoke

* Flatman

to every puff of wind a slave

(informal, countable) An act of inhaling smoke from a cigarette, cigar or pipe.

(countable) A flamboyant or alluring statement about an object's quality.

(dated, slang) A puffer, one who is employed by the owner or seller of goods sold at auction to bid up the price; an act or scam of that type.

* 1842 , "A Paper on Puffing", in Ainsworth's Magazine

Is nothing to be said in praise of the "Emporiums" and "Repositories" and "Divans," which formerly were mere insignificant tailors', toymen's, and tobacconists' shops? Is the transition from the barber's pole to the revolving bust of the perruquier, nothing? — the leap from the bare counter-traversed shop to the carpeted and mirrored saloon of trade, nothing? Are they not, one and all, practical puffs , intended to invest commerce with elegance, and to throw a halo round extravagance?

* 1848 , Mrs. White, "Puffs and Puffing", in Sharpe's London Magazine

Here the duke is made the vehicle of the tailor's advertisement, and the prelusive compliments, ostensibly meant for his grace, merge into a covert recommendation of the coat. Several specimens might be given of this species of puff , which is to be met with in almost every paper, and is a favourite form with booksellers, professional men, &c.

* 2008 , David Paton-Williamspage, Katterfelto , page xii

He was the eighteenth century king of spin, or, in the language of the day, the "prince of puff ".

A puffball.

A powder puff.

(uncountable, slang) The drug cannabis.

(countable) A light cake filled with cream, cream cheese, etc.

cream puff

(derogatory, slang, British, particularly northern UK) a homosexual; a poof

(slang, dated, UK) life

* 1938 , P. G. Wodehouse (Bertie Wooster speaking of Spode) in The Code of the Woosters

Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?

Synonyms

* (sharp exhalation of a small amount of breath through the mouth) * (ability to breathe easily while exerting oneself) wind * (small quantity of gas or smoke in the air) * drag * (cannabis) blow, dope, ganja, pot, weed; see also * (type of cake) pastry * (poof) See poof

Derived terms

* powder puff * puff pastry * puffer * puffery * puffing * puff piece

Verb

(en verb)

To emit smoke, gas, etc., in puffs.

To pant.

* L'Estrange

The ass comes back again, puffing and blowing, from the chase.

* 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter VI

Puffing and panting, we plodded on until within about a mile of the harbor we came upon a sight that brought us all up standing.

(archaic) To advertise.

To blow as an expression of scorn.

* South

It is really to defy Heaven to puff at damnation.

To swell with air; to be dilated or inflated.

(Boyle)

To breathe in a swelling, inflated, or pompous manner; hence, to assume importance.

* Herbert

Then came brave Glory puffing by.

To drive with a puff, or with puffs.

* Dryden

The clearing north will puff the clouds away.

To repel with words; to blow at contemptuously.

* Dryden

I puff the prostitute away.

To cause to swell or dilate; to inflate.

a bladder puffed with air

* Shakespeare

the sea puffed up with winds

To inflate with pride, flattery, self-esteem, etc.; often with up .

* Jowett

puffed up with military success

To praise with exaggeration; to flatter; to call public attention to by praises; to praise unduly.

* Macaulay

puffed with wonderful skill

Derived terms

* puffed * puff up * puff out

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

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