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Plume   /plum/   Listen
noun
Plume  n.  
1.
A feather; esp., a soft, downy feather, or a long, conspicuous, or handsome feather. "Wings... of many a colored plume."
2.
(Zool.) An ornamental tuft of feathers.
3.
A feather, or group of feathers, worn as an ornament; a waving ornament of hair, or other material resembling feathers. "His high plume, that nodded o'er his head."
4.
A token of honor or prowess; that on which one prides himself; a prize or reward. "Ambitious to win from me some plume."
5.
(Bot.) A large and flexible panicle of inflorescence resembling a feather, such as is seen in certain large ornamental grasses.
Plume bird (Zool.), any bird that yields ornamental plumes, especially the species of Epimarchus from New Guinea, and some of the herons and egrets, as the white heron of Florida (Ardea candidissima).
Plume grass. (Bot)
(a)
A kind of grass (Erianthus saccharoides) with the spikelets arranged in great silky plumes, growing in swamps in the Southern United States.
(b)
The still finer Erianthus Ravennae from the Mediterranean region. The name is sometimes extended to the whole genus.
Plume moth (Zool.), any one of numerous small, slender moths, belonging to the family Pterophoridae. Most of them have the wings deeply divided into two or more plumelike lobes. Some species are injurious to the grapevine.
Plume nutmeg (Bot.), an aromatic Australian tree (Atherosperma moschata), whose numerous carpels are tipped with long plumose persistent styles.


verb
Plume  v. t.  (past & past part. plumed; pres. part. pluming)  
1.
To pick and adjust the plumes or feathers of; to dress or prink. "Pluming her wings among the breezy bowers."
2.
To strip of feathers; to pluck; to strip; to pillage; also, to peel. (Obs.)
3.
To adorn with feathers or plumes. "Farewell the plumed troop."
4.
To pride; to vaunt; to boast; used reflexively; as, he plumes himself on his skill.
Plumed adder (Zool.), an African viper (Vipera cornuta, syn. Clotho cornuta), having a plumelike structure over each eye. It is venomous, and is related to the African puff adder. Called also horned viper and hornsman.
Plumed partridge (Zool.), the California mountain quail (Oreortyx pictus). See Mountain quail, under Mountain.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Plume" Quotes from Famous Books



... onward. Manoeuvering cautiously, jockeying the great machine with that consummate skill he had acquired from long practice, he soon beheld the dim outlines of the vast cliff, the long walls, the dull reflections of the fire-plume, the ...
— Darkness and Dawn • George Allan England
... used in probing the weaknesses of his own nature and in displaying them to the world, he used likewise in his dealings with others. If he detected Branda Porro or Camutio in a blunder he would inform them they were blockheads without hesitation, and plume himself afterwards on the score of his blunt honesty. Veracity was not a common virtue in those days, but Cardan laid claim to it with a display of insistence which was not, perhaps, in the best ...
— Jerome Cardan - A Biographical Study • William George Waters
... was out Macfarlane's prophecy had been fulfilled. Fettes had outlived his terrors and had forgotten his baseness. He began to plume himself upon his courage, and had so arranged the story in his mind that he could look back on these events with an unhealthy pride. Of his accomplice he saw but little. They met, of course, in the business of the class; they received their orders together from Mr. K——. At times they had a word ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 3 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... was not the least use, my poor Alicia, to ride about the lanes around Audley during those three days which the two young men spent in Essex; it was wasted trouble to wear that pretty cavalier hat and plume, and to be always, by the most singular of chances, meeting Robert and his friend. The black curls (nothing like Lady Audley's feathery ringlets, but heavy clustering locks, that clung about your slender brown throat), the red and pouting lips, the nose inclined to be retrousse, the dark ...
— Lady Audley's Secret • Mary Elizabeth Braddon
... uneasily. It was a true statement, and therefore an indiscreet. Grodman would plume himself terribly. At this moment Wimp felt that Grodman had been right in remaining a bachelor. Grodman perceived the humor of the situation, and ...
— The Big Bow Mystery • I. Zangwill


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