Feather Idioms
For a material that seems to be strictly for the birds, we sure talk about feathers a lot. We use feathers to illustrate our anger or surprise, to criticize and gossip, and even to praise and admire. Sometimes, we even talk about feathers when we're just grousing!
Here's a list of some common and some less common idioms we use in English concerning feathers:
Ruffle One's Feathers
Have you ever rubbed a cat the wrong way? If you have, then you know how upset they get. Well, the same is true for birds. In fact, this behavior is so common in the animal kingdom that early speakers began using the idea as a metaphor for doing something to deliberately anger someone.
Make the feathers fly
The idea here is that when birds fight, they tear at each other?s feathers with their beaks and claws. As the torn feathers fall, they look a little like they're flying all on their own. So, if someone has made the feathers fly, they have started an argument.
Fine feathers make/do not make fine birds
Does a well dressed person perform better? Can a nice suit hide a devil? Depending on how you would answer these two questions, and, depending on whether you live in the U.S. or the U.K. might determine which of these idioms you're more likely to use. The former phrase comes out of British military tradition which says that an officer will act more like a gentleman if he is dressed like one.
By contrast, in the United States, with our revolutionary and individualistic history, we are more likely to use the latter phrase meaning that what is inside a person's heart is more important than what is worn on the outside.
Birds of a feather flock together
Or, if you'd prefer, "Byrdes of on kynde and color flok and flye allwayes together." which is how William Turner originally wrote the phrase, way back in 1545. Either way, the phrase's meaning is the same: people with similar tastes tend to hang out together.
Feather one's nest
Perhaps more relevant now than ever, this idiom expresses the idea that someone is putting some padding in their financial nest, and maybe not doing so as honestly as they should. For example, "Although the economy is not doing well, it seems as though many of the bankers have managed to feather their nests pretty well."
A feather in one's cap
In some cultures, historically, achievements like killing your enemy or maybe just a large carnivore, were celebrated by putting feathers on your head. Or hat. And while doing so may not be so popular today, the phrase remains with us as a way of acknowledging something done well.
In fine feather
Another British phrase, if someone is in fine feather, he or she is in good form or in good shape and ready to perform.
If it's not chickens, it's feathers
Life is full of problems if you're a chicken farmer. One week your chickens are sick, the next, your chickens are fine, but you have a coop of molted feathers just waiting to be cleaned. So we have our final idiom, which is really nothing more than a colorful way to complain.