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Plume   Listen
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



... spelling need not plume themselves on their originality. The town clerk who wrote that delicious "yously doe" settles the question. It is to be hoped that Mr. Tho. Phippes was not only "not visious in conversation," but was more conventional ...
— An Old Town By The Sea • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... on the boughs Birds of rare plume Sang, in its bloom; Night-birds are we: Here we carouse, Singing like them, Perched round the stem Of the ...
— Victorian Songs - Lyrics of the Affections and Nature • Various

... a bough. He was generally unlucky in these matters, curiously enough, for he was a handsome youth in his saffron satin doublet slashed with black, and his jaunty velvet bonnet with its trailing plume of ostrich feather. ...
— A Midnight Fantasy • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... sort, I always end by walking with a firm step to the door (feeling, somehow, that I have grown quite a bit taller and much handsomer) and saying quietly: "Meadows, my suit of armor, please; the one with a chain-mail shirt and a purple plume." ...
— Love Conquers All • Robert C. Benchley

... Saxons. His dress consisted of a tight-fitting jerkin, descending nearly to his knees. The material was a light-blue cloth, while over his shoulder hung a short cloak of a darker hue. His cap was of Saxon fashion, and he wore on one side a little plume of a heron. In a somewhat costly belt hung a light short sword, while across his knees lay a crossbow, in itself almost a sure sign of its bearer being of other than Saxon blood. The boy looked anxiously as party after party rode past ...
— Winning His Spurs - A Tale of the Crusades • George Alfred Henty

... feathers in their caps, &c. (See Strahlenburg, 4to., p. 434.) The Dacotas also wear owls' feathers. (See Long's Expedition to Rocky Mountains, vol. i. p. 161.) The Usbeck Tartar chiefs wore (perhaps do wear) plumes of herons' feathers in their turbans; and the herons' plume of the Ottoman sultan is only a remnant of the costume in which their ancestors descended from ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 234, April 22, 1854 • Various

... proud Lucifer, Those blustering Poets that flie after fame And deck themselves like the bright Morning-starre. Alas! it is but all a crackling flame. For death will strip them of that glorious plume That airie ...
— Democritus Platonissans • Henry More

... water, and its back sprinkled gently. The bird will scream and rebel, but will feel better after it. It should be left in its bath for a few moments only (as it easily gets chilled), and then placed on its perch, where it can not feel any wind, to dry and plume itself. During a warm summer shower it is well to stand the cage out-of-doors for a short time. The parrot will usually spread its wings to receive the drops, and scream with delight, as that is its natural way of bathing. Parrots ...
— Harper's Young People, March 16, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... points and knots. His shirt was of the same hue, with a short taffeta cloak over, bound at the neck by a monstrous ruff, out of which his face looked like a calf's head from a dish of trimmings. To crown all, a white plume waved in his hat, while the rapier at his waist was caught up jauntily behind him, so that the point and the hilt lay on a level at either hip. His face was both cheerful and weak; and, as he strutted up to where Ludar and I stood, his gait reminded ...
— Sir Ludar - A Story of the Days of the Great Queen Bess • Talbot Baines Reed

... among the warriors, and, as soon as my wounds were healed, I went out to battle. In three fights I had gained five skulls, and when I returned they weighed me out gold. I then had a house and wives, and my father appointed me a Caboceer. I wore the plume of eagle and ostrich feathers, my dress was covered with fetishes, I pulled on the boots with bells, and with my bow and arrows slung on my back, my spear and blunderbuss, my knives and my double-handed sword, I led the ...
— Mr. Midshipman Easy • Captain Frederick Marryat

... and delicate green plumes, is at first more numerous than any other. Now appears the miriti, or mauritia—one of the most beautiful of its tribe, with pendent clusters of glossy fruit, and enormous spreading fan-like leaves cut into ribbons; the jupati, with plume-like leaves forty feet and upwards in length, graceful in the extreme, starting almost from the ground. Here is seen also the bussu, with stiff entire leaves, also of great length, growing upright from a short stem, close together, ...
— The Western World - Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North - and South America • W.H.G. Kingston

... some days, instead of gowns, they wore fair mantles of the above-named stuff, or capes of violet velvet with edging of gold, or with knotted cordwork of gold embroidery, garnished with little Indian pearls. They always carried a fair plume of feathers, of the color of their muff, bravely adorned with spangles of gold. In the winter-time they had their taffeta gowns of all colors, as above named, and those lined with the rich furrings of wolves, weasels, Calabrian martlet, sables, and other ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. VII (of X)—Continental Europe I • Various

... 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 wore ...
— The Big Bow Mystery • I. Zangwill

... pending bill. Then the representative of a manufacturers' organization inveighed against the measure, and my two friends became even more deeply absorbed. It was a telling speech, by one of the best-known lawyers in the state. Once I saw Dan's cowlick shake like the plume of an angry warrior as his wife turned toward him inquiringly. When the orator concluded, I saw them discussing his arguments in emphatic whispers, and I was so pleased with the picture they made that I failed to catch the name of the speaker whom ...
— A Hoosier Chronicle • Meredith Nicholson

... when the war will be over We'll go and we'll look for our dead; We'll go when the bee's on the clover, And the plume of the poppy is red: We'll go when the year's at its gayest, When meadows are laughing with flow'rs; And there where the crosses are greyest, We'll seek for the cross ...
— Rhymes of a Red Cross Man • Robert W. Service

... looked in on Frank in the middle of his dressing, found to his relief that an oldish suit of dress-clothes fitted him quite decently, and then went to put on his own. He came down to the drawing-room seven minutes after the gong with his ears very red and his hair in a plume, to find Frank talking to his mother, and eyed by his sisters who were pretending to look at photographs, with all the ease ...
— None Other Gods • Robert Hugh Benson

... beautifully wrought and inlaid with silver. His steed was black, having the suit and furniture of the war-horse complete. The crouptiere and estival, together with the chanfron, were of the most costly description. A plume of white feathers decorated his casque, extending his athletic ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby

... an' as I was lyin' on the broad ov my back, thinkin' ov nothin', a knock came to my door. 'Come in,' says I, 'iv you're fat.' So the door opened sure enough, an' in come a great big chap, dhressed in the most elegantest way ever you see, wid a cockade in his hat, an' a plume ov feathers out ov id, an' goolden epulets upon his shouldhers, an' tossels an' bobs of goold all over the coat ov him, jist like any lord ov the land. 'Are you Dan Dann'ly,' says he;—'Throth an' I am,' says I; 'an' ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 14, Issue 390, September 19, 1829 • Various

... gentlest serenity set in shining bands of auburn hair. Mrs. Doctor Prescott looked like an empress among the other women, with her purple velvet pelisse sweeping around her in massive folds, and her purple velvet bonnet with a long ostrich plume curling over the side—the purple being considered a sort of complimentary half-mourning. Squire Eben Merritt's wife, Abigail, could not approach her, although she was finely dressed in black satin, and a grand cashmere shawl from overseas. Mrs. Eben Merritt ...
— Jerome, A Poor Man - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... the historic north shoulder of Solidor is lonely now. The stages that once crawled painfully upward through its flowery meadows are playhouses for the children of Silver Plume, and the brakes that once howled so resoundingly on the downward way are rusting to ashes in the weeds that spring from the soil of the Silverado Queen's unused corral. The railway, half a hundred miles to the north, has left the ...
— They of the High Trails • Hamlin Garland

... make a man, un homme, of him," he said to Glafira Petrovna, "and not only a man, but a Spartan." Ivan Petrovitch began carrying out his intentions by putting his son in a Scotch kilt; the twelve-year-old boy had to go about with bare knees and a plume stuck in his Scotch cap. The Swedish lady was replaced by a young Swiss tutor, who was versed in gymnastics to perfection. Music, as a pursuit unworthy of a man, was discarded. The natural sciences, international law, mathematics, carpentry, after Jean-Jacques Rousseau's precept, ...
— A House of Gentlefolk • Ivan Turgenev

... birds starve to death, and in many places there are no egrets left. Every feathery plume in the dainty bonnet means that at least one happy, innocent life has been taken. Do the feathers look quite so pretty to you when you think of all this? Is it comfortable to feel that for the sake of being in the fashion you have been the cause of such distress? If you ...
— Friends and Helpers • Sarah J. Eddy

... but their worth is sadly injured by the want of an index. I am pleased to see that Mr. E. J. W. Gibb is publishing the "History of the Forty Vezirs; or, the Story of the Forty Morns and Eves," written in Turkish by "Sheykh-Zadah," evidently a nom de plume (for Ahmad al-Misri?), and translated from an Arabic MS. which probably dated ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton

... slippery verge shall mortals tread, Where ruin's gulf, unfathom'd, yawns beneath? Shall life, shall liberty be lost," he said, "For the vain toys that Pomp and Power bequeath? The car of victory, the plume, the wreath Defend not from the bolt of fate the brave: No note the clarion of Renown can breathe, To alarm the long night of the lonely grave, Or check the headlong haste ...
— The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer - With Lives, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes • Rev. George Gilfillan [Ed.]

... referring to the story of the unhappy bird which was left for a short while alone with a monkey, and which, when the owner returned to the room and found his bird clean plucked of its feathers by the monkey—all but a single plume in the tail—looked up dejectedly, and croaked in tones of almost voiceless horror, "I've been having a doose of a time!" The remarks were caught at by Mr. Burnand as a happy thought, and the new idea was tossed like a ball from one to another until there issued from it ...
— The History of "Punch" • M. H. Spielmann

... usual." Surely these are not marks of cowardice. Compare William with Henry IV of France, and Count Egmont, hero of St. Quentin's. They were soldiers, never statesmen. Henry was goaded by impulse. He, on the now classic field of Ivry, calling his soldiers to follow where his white plume leads, is a hero-soldier figure; and Egmont, generous, impulsive, magnetic, chivalrous, devoid of forecast, had, at St. Quentin's, administered such defeat as "France had not experienced since the ...
— A Hero and Some Other Folks • William A. Quayle

... hammered in her breast, As o'er a distant woody crest A dim gray plume of vapor trailed; And nearer, clearer, by and by, Like the faint echo of a cry, A warning whistle shrilled and wailed! Her frightened gelding reared and plunged, As the doomed trestle rocked and ...
— The Poets and Poetry of Cecil County, Maryland • Various

... with his eye and pinion, trained For mateship with the sun, twitched at a sting. Amazed to find a "cootie" on his wing, And that the insect dreamed, it was ordained By race heredity to serve the King— He shook his plume and ...
— Freedom, Truth and Beauty • Edward Doyle

... (if such it may be called), which is a kind of mask, made of a large gourd, with holes cut in it for the eyes and nose. The top was stuck full of small green twigs, which, at a distance, had the appearance of an elegant waving plume; and from the lower part hung narrow stripes of cloth, resembling a beard. We never saw these masks worn but twice, and both times by a number of people together in a canoe, who came to the side of the ship, laughing and drolling, with an air of masquerading. Whether they may not likewise be ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17 • Robert Kerr

... street in spite of its improvements; in spite, too, of a long, gray smoke-plume crossing the summer sky and dropping an occasional atomy of coal upon Mr. Corliss's white coat. The green continuous masses of tree-foliage, lawn, and shrubbery were splendidly asserted; there was a ...
— The Flirt • Booth Tarkington

... at the palace, dressed all in lovely, fluffy robes and with a dainty pink plume in her pink hair, she begged most earnestly not to be made the ...
— Sky Island - Being the further exciting adventures of Trot and Cap'n - Bill after their visit to the sea fairies • L. Frank Baum

... every way well Equipt, they took their way, attended only by two Lacqueys, toward the Church di Santa Croce, before which they were to perform their Exercises of Chivalry. Hippolito wore upon his Helm a large Plume of Crimson Feathers, in the midst of which was artificially placed Leonora's Handkerchief. His Armour was gilt, and enammell'd with Green and Crimson. Aurelian was not so happy as to wear any token to recommend him to the notice of his Mistress, so ...
— Incognita - or, Love & Duty Reconcil'd. A Novel • William Congreve

... that European fashions have quite banished those of the original inhabitants, it is only preserved and shown to strangers as a relic of the past. The helmet, of wood covered with small red and yellow feathers, and adorned with a plume, perfectly resembles those of the chivalrous knights of yore; and the short mantle, also most ingeniously made with feathers to supply the want of woven stuff, forms a complete representation of the mantles worn by those ancient heroes: hence ...
— A New Voyage Round the World, in the years 1823, 24, 25, and 26, Vol. 2 • Otto von Kotzebue

... A French cook dresses his dinner for him, and a Swiss valet dresses him for his dinner. He hands down his lady, decked with pearls that never grew in the shell of a British oyster, and her waving plume of ostrich-feathers certainly never formed the tail of a barn-door fowl. The viands of his table are from all countries of the world; his wines are from the banks of the Rhine and the Rhone. In his conservatory ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, July, 1851 • Various

... Hart gave "plume" a French sound, and Robinson was puzzled to know why Grant bade his friend stop profaning ...
— The Postmaster's Daughter • Louis Tracy

... Raindrops choke The sunset furnaces. The gloom Brings the great steamboat spitting smoke, And beating down its long black plume. ...
— Enamels and Cameos and other Poems • Theophile Gautier

... circumstance. We charge the evil consequence not to the error of our schemes and our incomplete inquiry into conditions (thereby getting material for revising the former and stimulus for extending the latter) but to untoward fate. We even plume ourselves upon our firmness in clinging to our conceptions in spite of the way ...
— Democracy and Education • John Dewey

... arabesques. You want the idea drawn out of obscuring matter, and this can best be done by the symbol. The symbol, or the thing itself, that is the great artistic question. In earlier ages it was the symbol; a name, a plume, sufficed to evoke the idea; now we evoke nothing, for we give everything, the imagination of the spectator is no longer called into play. In Shakespeare's days to create wealth in a theatre it was only necessary to write upon ...
— Confessions of a Young Man • George Moore

... horizon the sky so throbbed that here and there it rent the sheer cloud-veil that lay in delicate illusion over the blue. Through the trees played frightened flashes of colour, the whisk of a cardinal's wing, the burnt-red plume of a fox-squirrel's tail. In the air there was a palpitancy that was to the dream senses what colour vibrations are ...
— Sally of Missouri • R. E. Young

... of the King of Navarre, the Cardinal of Bourbon, but all the more moderate Catholics rallied round Henry of Navarre, who took the title of Henry IV. At Ivry, in Normandy, Henry met the force of Leaguers, and defeated them by his brilliant courage. "Follow my white plume," his last order to his troops, became one of the sayings the French love to remember. But his cause was still not won—Paris held out against him, animated by almost fanatical fury, and while he was besieging it France was invaded from ...
— History of France • Charlotte M. Yonge

... ornaments—one of comb, shaped like a horse-shoe, on their foreheads, the ends resting on the temples. The end of this ornament is fastened into a piece of wood, plated in front with tin; above it waves a plume of feathers ...
— In the Eastern Seas • W.H.G. Kingston

... the several shots that whined past him, Bruce came to a halt at the edge of a traverse. There he stood, wagging his plume of a tail in grave friendliness, while a score of khaki-clad arms reached up to lift ...
— Bruce • Albert Payson Terhune

... was supported before and behind by a pair of long, springy poles or shafts, to which were harnessed six white horses, three abreast, the harness and trappings of the animals being blue, elaborately embroidered with gold, while the headstall of each horse was decorated with a plume of half a dozen long blue feathers. The middle horse of each trio—that which ran between the shafts—was ridden by a postilion, who guided and controlled all three of the ...
— Harry Escombe - A Tale of Adventure in Peru • Harry Collingwood

... of the army sallied forth that day. The Moors gazed with fearful admiration at this glorious pageant, wherein the pomp of the court was mingled with the terrors of the camp. It moved along in radiant line, across the vega, to the melodious thunders of martial music, while banner and plume, and silken scarf, and rich brocade, gave a gay and gorgeous relief to the grim visage of iron war ...
— Washington Irving • Charles Dudley Warner

... his cart in front of him, and at the very moment when he was about to turn into the Rue des Vielles-Haudriettes, found himself face to face with a uniform, a shako, a plume, ...
— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo

... let me unfasten your cloak," she continued, placing Nellie on a chair and proceeding to take off her hat with its well soaked plume. "Dear heart! how the child resembles her father! John's very eyes and nose, I declare. Well, well, I'm getting an old woman, and the sight of this fresh, young face warns me ...
— Aunt Judith - The Story of a Loving Life • Grace Beaumont

... chances," Adam replied, glancing at the Rio Negro's funnel, from which a faint plume of ...
— The Buccaneer Farmer - Published In England Under The Title "Askew's Victory" • Harold Bindloss

... vain to catch a glimpse of some feminine figure in the small suburban garden. No flutter of scarlet petticoat or flash of scarlet plume revealed the ...
— Birds of Prey • M. E. Braddon

... white and blue cockade affixed to his tousled hat plume—calls the names of the accused and presents the charge. From the background, the stripe-panted soldiery ...
— Orphans of the Storm • Henry MacMahon

... while behind them came a number of Indians on foot, running at headlong speed, with a party of horsemen coming quickly up in the distance. As they drew nearer, one appeared to be a female; and from the plume of feathers in her hair, the doctor declared that she must be an Indian, as undoubtedly, from his ...
— The Young Llanero - A Story of War and Wild Life in Venezuela • W.H.G. Kingston

... golden-rod shine bright, As sun-showers at the birth of day, A golden plume of yellow light, That robs the Day-god's ...
— A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers • Henry David Thoreau

... storied brave Greece nurtured in her glory's time, Rest thee—there is no prouder grave, Even in her own proud clime. She wore no funeral weeds for thee, Nor bade the dark hearse wave its plume Like torn branch from death's leafless tree In sorrow's pomp and pageantry, The heartless luxury of the tomb; But she remembers thee as one Long-loved and for a season gone. For thee her poet's lyre is wreathed, Her marble wrought, her music breathed; ...
— Eighth Reader • James Baldwin

... him: Wullie often talked like this, and she only understood very vaguely what he meant. But she could grasp the idea of something trying to struggle through desperately, and looked pityingly at the little frail plume of blossom. ...
— Captivity • M. Leonora Eyles

... of Bhopal, Sir Salar Jung, the Maharajah of Puttiala, Lord Napier of Magdala, the Maharajah of Travancore, Sir Bartle Frere, the Maharajahs of Rewah, Jeypoor, Indore, Cashmere, and Gwalior. Then came the Prince of Wales wearing a white helmet and plume, and a Field Marshal's uniform almost concealed by his sky-blue mantle. Following him was the Viceroy and the two took the chairs placed on the dais. His Excellency, as Grand Master of the Order, then went through the ceremonial of opening the Chapter and then, from out the tented field of, literally, ...
— The Life of King Edward VII - with a sketch of the career of King George V • J. Castell Hopkins

... Ballyporrit. O'Connor introduced Ralph to his host, and then hurried away. In a short time he was deep in conversation with Miss Tabitha Regan, who was some years younger than her brother, and still believed herself to be quite a girl. She was gorgeously arrayed with a plume of ...
— One of the 28th • G. A. Henty

... in the plain below. This celebrated chief headed his men with his head partly shaved, in the Polish fashion, and plainly dressed, though he was attended by a brilliant retinue. In front went an attendant bearing the king's arms emblazoned. Beside him was another who carried a plume on the point of his lance. On his left rode his son James, on his right Charles of Lorraine. Before the battle he knighted his son and made a stirring address to his troops, in which he told them ...
— Historical Tales, Vol 5 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality, German • Charles Morris

... her—and the plain reached wide—and close, in the darkness, a hand held her safe and the long finger of Achilles touched the stars and drew them down for her... Orion there, marching with his mighty belt—and Mars red-gleaming. The long, white plume of the milky way, trailing soft glory on the sky—and the great bear to the north. The names filled her ears with a mighty din, Calliope, Venus, Uranus, Mercury, Mars—and the shining hosts of heaven passed ...
— Mr. Achilles • Jennette Lee

... this lower part of the river was wonderful in its variety. The birds of the desert mingled with those of the fertile lands. The song-birds vied with those of gorgeous plume. Water-birds disported themselves in the mud-banks and sloughs. The smaller birds seemed to pay little attention to the nearness of the hawks. Kingfisher perched on limbs overhanging the quiet pools, ready to drop at the faintest movement on the opaque water; the road-runner chased the festive lizard ...
— Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico • E. L. Kolb

... time it was a knight on horseback, clad in sapphire mail, a white plume above his casque. Or a cathedral window with shafts of chrysophras, new powdered by a snow-storm. Or a smooth sheer cliff of lapis lazuli; or a Banyan tree, with roots descending from its branches, and a foliage as delicate as the efflorescence ...
— Letters From High Latitudes • The Marquess of Dufferin (Lord Dufferin)

... took, methought, no notice of her; nor when she light, did any body press (as she seemed to expect, and staid for it,) to take her down, but was taken down by her own gentlemen. She looked mighty out of humour, and had a yellow plume in her hat, (which all took notice of,) and yet is very handsome, but very melancholy: nor did any body speak to her, or she so much as smile or speak to any body. I followed them up into White Hall, ...
— The Diary of Samuel Pepys • Samuel Pepys

... fort, and have since then seen many a bloody fray, and shall see more before they die. Two captains ride before them on shaggy ponies, the taller in armor, stained and rusted with many a storm and fray, the other in brilliant inlaid cuirass and helmet, gaudy sash and plume, and sword hilt glittering with gold, a quaint contrast enough to the meager garron which carries him and his finery. Beside them, secured by a cord which a pikeman has fastened to his own wrist, trots a bare-legged Irish kerne, whose only clothing is his ragged yellow mantle, and ...
— Westward Ho! • Charles Kingsley

... impenetrable green and silence of the nipa swamps. The banks—or rather limits of the current—were thickets of water grass six feet high, its roots sunk in ooze. Here and there a rise of ground betrayed itself in a few cocoanuts, the ragged fans of tall bouri palms, or a plume-like clump of bamboo and the hospitable shade of a ...
— A Woman's Impression of the Philippines • Mary Helen Fee

... such an extraordinary fashion that I can plume myself on being an "interesting case," though I am not going to compete with you in that line. And if you look at the February "Nineteenth" I hope you will think that my brains are none the worse. But perhaps that conceited speech is evidence ...
— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 3 • Leonard Huxley

... run several long black crayon marks from nose to chin, and popped a pair of spectacles over the eyes, behold the demure Susan transformed into so comical an imitation of an old man that the spectators rocked on their seats with merriment. There he stood, "plucking his bonnet and plume," while Dreda simpered in a corner, and Nancy as Lochinvar interviewed Barbara in the character of indignant father. Both actors had donned imitations of the Scottish costume, and the former made a picturesque figure as he led ...
— Etheldreda the Ready - A School Story • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... the sea the insolent captain of a Federal gunboat; at another time, when handcuffed by order of General Sheridan, he spends an hour in cursing his captors. The red-hair of the Lord of the White Elephants waved his followers to victory; Colonel Gilmore's "hat, with the long black plume upon it," is the signal of triumph to his marauders. Both, finally, are loved by the ladies, and are alike extravagant in their devotion to the sex. Colonel Gilmore, indeed, withholds no touch that can go to make him the hero of a dime novel; and there is not a more ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 107, September, 1866 • Various

... undertook to go after me and bring me home for vacation; and he actually performed the whole journey of thirty miles with his horse and wagon, and slept at a tavern a whole night, a feat of bravery on which he has never since ceased to plume himself. I well remember that awful night in the tavern in the remote region of North Andover. We occupied a chamber in which were two beds. In the unsuspecting innocence of youth I undressed myself and got into bed as usual; but my brave and thoughtful uncle, ...
— The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe • Charles Edward Stowe

... fainting away plaintively, the window was raised. Drennen saw Ygerne Bellaire, half in light, half in shadow. She leaned out. She was laughing softly. Garcia, his bow carrying to the ground his hat which in the dim light appeared to Drennen's fancy to wear the black plume which would not have been misplaced there, came closer to the window. Upon the girl's face was a gaiety Drennen had not seen there until now; her lips curved to it, her eyes danced with it. She had a little meadow flower in her hand; Drennen wondered if she had ...
— Wolf Breed • Jackson Gregory

... following each one in which a royal person is being conveyed. Behind come the carriages of the Grandes, according to rank, all drawn by at least six horses, with trappings little, if at all, inferior to those of the Court, and each with its enormous plume of gaily-coloured ostrich feathers, showing the livery of its owner. In addition to all this grandeur, the balconies of the great houses lining the route of the processions display priceless heirlooms of embroideries, hanging ...
— Spanish Life in Town and Country • L. Higgin and Eugene E. Street

... and I took our Black Hawk stallion to the fair in Hillsborough and showed him for a prize. He was fit for the eye of a king when we had finished grooming him, that morning, and led him out, rearing in play, his eyes flashing from under his broad plume, so that all might have a last look at him. His arched neck and slim barrel glowed like satin as the sunlight fell upon him. His black mane flew, he shook the ground with his hoofs playing at the halter's ...
— Eben Holden - A Tale of the North Country • Irving Bacheller

... ordained in 1710, and in 1711 obtained the small living of Lamesley and Tanfield in Durham. He married in 1715. It was the year in which Bishop Hoadley preached the famous sermon on "The Kingdom of Christ," which gave rise to the "Bangorian controversy"; and Balguy, under the nom de plume of Silvius, began his career of authorship by taking the side of Hoadley in this controversy against some of his High Church opponents. [v.03 p.0256] In 1726 he published A letter to a Deist concerning the Beauty ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 - "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" • Various

... of crows in this part of Africa. Besides the large-beaked bird of the Harar Hills, I found the common European variety, with, however, the breast feathers white tipped in small semicircles as far as the abdomen. The little "king-crow" of India is common: its bright red eye and purplish plume render it a conspicuous object as it perches upon the tall camel's back ...
— First footsteps in East Africa • Richard F. Burton

... costumes, each wilder and more extravagant than the last. Here were magicians with high peaked hats covered with cabalistic signs, here Eastern sultans of the medieval model, with very fierce looks and very large scimitars: here Amadis de Gaul with a wagging plume a yard high, here Pantagruel, here harlequins, here Huguenots ten times more lugubrious than the despised sectaries they mocked, here Caesar and Pompey in trunk hose and Roman helmets, and a mass of other notabilities who were great favourites in ...
— The Wits and Beaux of Society - Volume 1 • Grace Wharton and Philip Wharton

... loosned in readiness her Hood-strings, and fastened a Pullet to the Lure, go a little distance, cast it half the length of the string about your Head, still Luring with your Voice, unhood your Hawk, and throw it a little way from her: If she stoop and seize, let her plume the Pullet, and feed on it upon the Lure: Then take her and Meat on your Fist, Hood her, and give her the Tiring of the Wing, or Foot ...
— The School of Recreation (1684 edition) • Robert Howlett

... bread thwarting it by preparation. One would suppose them to be just two beautifully cared for, careless-of-life girls, thinking of what some man had said at the dance the night before, or of the texture of the plume on some one's hat, or, to get down to the really serious issues of life, whether or not they could afford that love ...
— The Visioning • Susan Glaspell

... into the waste to smoke out a porcupine. All the dogs attended, but even their clamour—and they began to discuss the shortcomings of porcupines before they left cantonments—could not take us out of ourselves. A large, low moon turned the tops of the plume-grass to silver, and the stunted camelthorn bushes and sour tamarisks into the likenesses of trooping devils. The smell of the sun had not left the earth, and little aimless winds blowing across the rose-gardens to the southward brought the scent of dried roses and water. Our ...
— Life's Handicap • Rudyard Kipling

... sun was shining, the river dancing far away in the sun, and she was to spend the day with him. She had dressed herself to perfection in a close-fitting dress of dark-gray velvet, relieved by ribbons of rose pink; she wore a hat with a dark-gray plume, under the shade of which her beautiful face looked doubly bewitching; the little hands, which by their royal gestures swayed multitudes, were cased in dark gray. Lord Chandos looked ...
— A Mad Love • Bertha M. Clay

... and "I!" and "I!" chorused the generous birds. And in turn each came forward with a plume or a bit of down from his breast. The Robin first, who had shared his peril, brought a feather sadly scorched, but precious; the Lark next, who had helped in the time of need. The Eagle bestowed a kingly feather, the Thrush, the Nightingale,—every bird contributed ...
— The Curious Book of Birds • Abbie Farwell Brown

... many times in my hand, and therefore cannot be deceived in the description. His dress was very plain and simple, and the fashion of it between the Asiatic and the European; but he had on his head a light helmet of gold, adorned with jewels, and a plume on the crest. He held his sword drawn in his hand to defend himself if I should happen to break loose; it was almost three inches long, the hilt and scabbard were gold enriched with diamonds. His voice was shrill, but very clear ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 5 • Charles Sylvester

... Titmarsh, let me acknowledge these favours in my own name, and subscribe myself, &c. &c., W. M. Thackeray." So he gradually fell into the declaration of his own identity. In 1844 he made his journey to Turkey and Egypt,—From Cornhill to Grand Cairo, as he called it, still using the old nom de plume, but again signing the dedication with his own name. It was now made to the captain of the vessel in which he encountered that famous white squall, in describing which he has shown the wonderful power he had ...
— Thackeray • Anthony Trollope

... if one with sullied plume Should droop in mid career, My love makes signals,—"There is ...
— Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn • Lafcadio Hearn

... happy—these slender, agile, vigorous creatures in their skins that shone like the skins of green snakes, in their broidered, glittering, spangled vests, in their little velvet caps with the white plume in each. "Take me! take me!" I shrieked to them; and the old king of the troop looked hard at me, and when their games were finished crossed the cord that marked their arena and threw his strong arms about me, and cried, "Body of Christ! you are little Pippo!" For ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 26, July 1880. • Various

... the short cut was delightful. We rocked like a cradle—the Ancon rocks like a cradle on the slightest provocation. The sea sparkled, the wavelets leaped and clapped their hands. Once in awhile a plume of spray was blown over the bow, and the delicate stomach recoiled upon itself suggestively; but the deliciousness of the air in the open sea and the brevity of the cruise—we were but five or six hours outside—kept us in a state of intense ...
— Over the Rocky Mountains to Alaska • Charles Warren Stoddard

... to forge a complete stuffed moa. I know a chap out there who will pretend to make the find in a kind of antiseptic swamp, and say he stuffed it at once, as it threatened to fall to pieces. The feathers are peculiar, but I have got a simply lovely way of dodging up singed bits of ostrich plume. Yes, that is the new smell you noticed. They can only discover the fraud with a microscope, and they will hardly care to pull a nice ...
— The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents • H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

... of my sex, I retorted in no measured terms, "Besotted Being! You think yourself the perfection of existence, while you are in reality the most imperfect and imbecile. You profess to see, whereas you see nothing but a Point! You plume yourself on inferring the existence of a Straight Line; but I CAN SEE Straight Lines, and infer the existence of Angles, Triangles, Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons, and even Circles. Why waste more words? Suffice it that I am the completion of your incomplete self. You are a Line, ...
— Flatland • Edwin A. Abbott

... trumpet, with the neigh of the war-horse and the clatter of marching men. From the Wrekin in the Welsh marches to the Cotswolds in the west or Butser in the south, there was no hill-top from which the peasant might not have seen the bright shimmer of arms, the toss and flutter of plume and of pensil. From bye-path, from woodland clearing, or from winding moor-side track these little rivulets of steel united in the larger roads to form a broader stream, growing ever fuller and larger as it approached the nearest ...
— The White Company • Arthur Conan Doyle

... at his will, and in his conduct was oftentimes very violent. With these manners and this bearing, which caused him to be both feared and respected, he would often amuse himself by going to see the Chartreux, in order to plume himself on having quitted their frock. He played much at hombre, and frequently gained 'codille' (a term of the game), so that the name of the Abbe Codille was given to him. He lived in this manner always with the same licence and in the same consideration, until nearly ninety years ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, Complete • Duc de Saint-Simon

... true course. Leaving camp at sunrise, Captain Lewis was crossing a high, bare plain, when he heard the most musical of all wilderness sounds—the far rushing that is the voice of many waters. Far above the prairie there shimmered in the morning sun a gigantic plume of spray. Surely this was the Great Falls of which the Indians told. Lewis and his men broke into a run across the open for seven miles, the rush of waters increasing to a deafening roar, the plume of spray to clouds of foam. Cliffs two hundred feet ...
— Pathfinders of the West • A. C. Laut

... you men of Angiers, ring your bells: King John, your king and England's, doth approach, Commander of this hot malicious day: Their armours, that march'd hence so silver-bright, Hither return all gilt with Frenchmen's blood; There stuck no plume in any English crest That is removed by a staff of France, Our colours do return in those same hands That did display them when we first march'd forth; And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, come Our lusty English, all with purpled hands, Dy'd ...
— King John • William Shakespeare [Collins edition]

... for gain there? Among the many brilliant shops whose casements shone upon Chepe, there stood one a century back (about which period our tale opens) devoted to the sale of Colonial produce. A rudely carved image of a negro, with a fantastic plume and apron of variegated feathers, decorated the lintel. The East and West had sent their contributions to replenish ...
— Burlesques • William Makepeace Thackeray

... is best to do," said Thorwald, "when I have to lead men into action, or to shew them how to fight. But, to say truth, I don't plume myself on possessing more than an average share of the qualities of the terrier dog. When niggers are to be hunted out of holes in the mountains like rabbits, I will do what in me lies to aid in the work; but I would rather be led than lead if you ...
— Gascoyne, the Sandal-Wood Trader • R.M. Ballantyne

... piece, that he or she might always have plenty of wood for heat and light. Some three hundred feet above is another shrine, directly attached to the "father" rock, and to the white man difficult of access. Here I found many offerings of plume sticks ...
— The Religious Life of the Zuni Child - Bureau of American Ethnology • (Mrs.) Tilly E. (Matilda Coxe Evans) Stevenson

... to take his auditors entirely into his confidence, and tell them his inmost conviction about himself. Between his self-knowledge, which was considerable, and his vanity, which was immense, he had created a strange hybrid animal, and called it by his own name. How he would plume his feathers over virtues which would have gladdened the heart of Caesar or St. Paul; and anon, complete his own portrait with one of those touches of pitiless realism which the satirist so often ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume XXI • Robert Louis Stevenson

... milk-white palfrey forth he paced; His cap of maintenance was graced With the proud heron-plume. From his steed's shoulder, loin, and breast, Silk housings swept the ground, With Scotland's arms, device, and crest, Embroidered round and round. The double treasure might you see, First by Achaius ...
— The Prose Marmion - A Tale of the Scottish Border • Sara D. Jenkins

... chieftain fall, when, through the smoke he reappears waving his hat, cheering on his men, and shouting: "Away, dear Colonel, and bring up the troops; the day is ours." "Coeur de Lion" might have doffed his plume to such a chief, for a great knight was he, who met his foes full tilt in the shock of battle and hurled them down with an arm whose sword flamed with ...
— America First - Patriotic Readings • Various

... welfare of a nation for the miserable sake of party popularity? Are we to stand here in the guise and manner of free men, knowing that we are driven together like a flock of sheep into the fold by the howling of the wolves outside? Are we to strut and plume ourselves upon our unhampered freedom, while we act like slaves? Worse than slaves we should be if we allowed one breath of party spirit, one thought of party aggrandizement, to enter into the choice we are about to make. Slaves are driven to their ...
— An American Politician • F. Marion Crawford

... blade that marks the soldier of the field, His glory is his broken sword, his pride the scars upon his shield; The crimson stains that sin has left upon his soul are tongues that speak The victory of new found strength by one who yesterday was weak. And meaningless the spotless plume, the shining blade that goes through life And quits this naming battlefield ...
— Over Here • Edgar A. Guest

... was lucklessly ushered into this dancing gilt bubble that we call the world, were all good gifts denied me? The fairies ordained that I should paint, should soar like Apelles, Angelo, and Da Vinci into the empyrean of pure classic art, but no sooner did I dabble in pigment, and plume my slender artistic pin-feathers, than the granite hands of Palma pride seized the ambitious ephemeron, cut off the sprouting wings, and bade me paint only my lips and cheeks, if dabble in paint I must. I am confident the soul of Zeuxis sleeps in mine, but before the ukase of ...
— Infelice • Augusta Jane Evans Wilson

... hunters looked anxiously at each other. One of the fires was more clearly seen, and they could even distinguish an Indian sentinel in his frightful battle-costume. The long mane of a bison covered his head, and above that waved a plume of feathers. Bois-Rose pointed him out to Pepe, but luckily the fog was so thick that the Indian, rendered himself visible by the fire, near which he stood, could not yet see the island. However, as if an instinct had warned ...
— Wood Rangers - The Trappers of Sonora • Mayne Reid

... of fun, in a tiger skin shawl, lined with scarlet, and only five colours upon her head-dress—on the top of a flaxen wig a bandeau of blue velvet, a bit of tiger ribbon, a white beaver hat and plume of black feathers—as gay ...
— Autobiography, Letters and Literary Remains of Mrs. Piozzi (Thrale) (2nd ed.) (2 vols.) • Mrs. Hester Lynch Piozzi

... was simple in comparison with the rich attire of the other Italian nobles, his compatriots. He wore a felt hat ornamented with a long plume, a Spanish cloak, a cloth doublet lined with fur, violet satin breeches, and gray boots. His modest attire was relieved only by the sword which hung at his side; for the hilt glittered with precious stones, ...
— The Amulet • Hendrik Conscience

... realize it, but he had made his last trip as a pilot. It is rather curious that his final brief note-book entry should begin with his future nom de plume—a memorandum of soundings—"mark twain," and should end with ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine

... fancy, Sir, this is the first time that he has been engaged in such an adventure.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I believe it is the first time he has beat; he may have been beaten before[605]. This, Sir, is a new plume ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell

... surge I rode, A strong wind on me shot, And tossed me as I toss my plume, In battle fierce and hot. Three days and nights no sun I saw, Nor gentle star nor moon; Three feet of foam dash'd o'er my decks, I sang to see it—soon The wind fell mute, forth shone the sun, Broad dimpling smiled the brine; ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 12, - Issue 344 (Supplementary Issue) • Various

... got up slowly from the chair and, accompanied by the admiring Mr. Mills, passed out into the street. The evening was young, and, at his friend's suggestion, they returned to the Plume of Feathers. ...
— Night Watches • W.W. Jacobs

... not that. Did I not say I would be nobody's lord for the nonce? What is your name? Paul? Then I will be called Paul for this next hour, and you shall be Edward. See, here is my jewelled collar and the cap with the ostrich plume—the badge of the Prince of Wales. Yes, put them on, put them on. Marry, I could think it was my very self, but ...
— In the Wars of the Roses - A Story for the Young • Evelyn Everett-Green

... spring in whispers Stirred the withered bunch-grass plume, Humming hymns of resurrection Over nature's silent tomb, And the fleeing clouds of heaven, Bending low at God's command, Spilled their tribute from the ocean On the long-forsaken land, And the sun, with mellow kindness Spread abroad ...
— Nancy MacIntyre • Lester Shepard Parker

... till the morning breezes wave again your turban's plume; Morning air and rosy dawning are their heralds to the tomb. Once again to dust shall daylight doom these Wand'rers of the night; See, it dawns!—A joyous welcome neigh our horses ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VII. • Various

... to retreat. The French take Port-Vendre, Collieure, and St. Elme. 13. A festival to the Eternal. Robespierre acts the part of Pontiff. The ceremony is designed to satisfy the people, by putting an end to atheism. The members of the convention assume the distinction of a plume of feathers in the hat, and a three-coloured scarf. The French army in Maritime Flanders amounts to 170,000 men. The inviolability of the members of the convention is renewed. A large convoy from America with corn arrives ...
— Historical Epochs of the French Revolution • H. Goudemetz

... a bonnet as Suzette's in the world. It was black, and full of white roses, and floating a defiant ostrich-plume, and tied with broad red ribbons, whereby she could be recognized from one end of the Luxembourg ...
— Bohemian Days - Three American Tales • Geo. Alfred Townsend

... Ardea could not know about this, or that the Plume-Hunters had come to steal her wedding feathers. But she knew well enough that danger was at hand, and that in times of trouble a mother's place is beside her babies. Her heart beat quickly with a new terror, but she stayed, the brave bird stayed! ...
— Bird Stories • Edith M. Patch

... a chair.] Known by his plume, And his long hair, gave signal for the trenches; Himself leapt first: the regiment all plunged after. His charger, by a halbert gored, rear'd up, Flung him with violence off, and over him The horses, now no longer to be curbed— [THEKLA, who has accompanied the last speech with all the marks ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. III • Kuno Francke (Editor-in-Chief)

... visit to England, by a good artist. Their Majesties are depicted in the height of the fashion of the day, the king wearing a blue coat and brass buttons, with many orders on his breast, the queen having on a very short-waisted, tight-fitting white satin dress, a turban surmounted by a tremendous plume of white feathers, and a pearl necklace and bracelets: rather a trying costume for a handsome woman with a dark complexion and portly figure. They both died in England, and their remains were brought back here for burial, in H.M.S. 'Blonde,' ...
— A Voyage in the 'Sunbeam' • Annie Allnut Brassey

... and the Erechtheum was placed the colossal bronze statue of Pallas-Promachos, the work of Phidias, which towered so high above the other buildings, that the plume of her helmet and the point of her spear were visible on the sea between Sunium and Athens. Moreover, the Acropolis was occupied by so great a crowd of statues and monuments, that the account, ...
— Conversion of a High Priest into a Christian Worker • Meletios Golden

... white scalloped collar fell over the collar of the kurtka. A strong black full beard gave a martial expression to his face with the fiery eyes and regular features. Sometimes he wore a biretta with a diamond agraffe and a high plume of heron feathers. Very seldom he appeared in the ...
— Napoleon's Campaign in Russia Anno 1812 • Achilles Rose

... hidden treasures of character in others. And one other quality is indispensable for the moral appreciation of our neighbors, namely, the quality of humility. Strange as it may seem, the less we plume ourselves on our own goodness, the more we shall be ready to believe in the goodness of other people; the more we realize the infinite nature of the moral ideal and our own distance from it, the more we shall esteem as of relatively ...
— The Essentials of Spirituality • Felix Adler



Words linked to "Plume" :   form, bastard wing, chisel, deck up, dress up, rig out, plumage, plume grass, bedight, set up, shape, soak, pluck, fancy up, undercharge, deck out, quill, down, experience, vane, extort, squeeze, prince's-plume, plume-tipped, aigret, bill, panache, pride, shaft, scarlet plume, marabou, cheat, rob, dress, ceratin, deck, gouge, clean, desert plume, fig out, feather, get dressed, aigrette, pinion, trick up, alula, bedeck, rip off, flight feather, rack, preen



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