feather

«feather» in Mova's school dictionary: one of the light, soft parts that cover a bird's body — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (feather, feathers); verb (feather a nest — to make it soft)

meaning for a pupil

1) A feather is one of the light, soft parts that cover a bird's body. tree →

2) Feathers keep birds warm and dry and help them fly. tree →

3) «Light as a feather» means very light. tree →

4) People who are alike like to spend time together. tree →

sense in the lessons

maths: things counted or collected; feathers per hat or pillow (total = items × feathers each); science: only birds have feathers, feathers for flying and warmth, birds moult; art: feather pens long ago (quills); phrases: «birds of a feather flock together»

examples

• She found 14 feathers. tree →
• Each hat has 3 feathers. tree →
• A pillow has 200 feathers. tree →
• How many feathers in 5 hats? tree →
• The peacock has bright blue and green feathers. tree →
• Long ago people wrote with feather pens. tree →
• The box was as light as a feather. tree →
• Feathers help birds stay warm. tree →
• Birds of a feather flock together. tree →

note

Thing counted. Trap: none. Only birds have feathers. Spelling: f-e-a-t-h-e-r.

In the corpora

• Owl wing feathers have comb-like front edges, soft fringes and a velvety surface that muffle the sound of flying.
• Penguins also keep warm with a thick layer of fat and tightly packed waterproof feathers.
• Male sandgrouse soak their belly feathers at a waterhole and fly many kilometres back to their chicks, which drink from the wet feathers.
• Birds and many dinosaurs share hollow bones, wishbones, three-toed feet and feathers.
• A jay's feather is blue because of shape: crush it and the blue is gone, leaving grey-brown.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «feather» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.