Heading
Whence High or Low in the feather.
1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib's Memorial to Congress, p. 5. The swells in high feather.
1878. Lang, Ballad of the Boat-race. They catch the stroke and they slog it through, With Cambridge heavy and low in the feather, The standing sin of the fair Light Blue.
To show the white feather, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To turn cur; to prove oneself a coward. [Among game cocks a cross-bred bird is known by a white feather in the tail. Of old the breed was strictly preserved in England, for though birds of all descriptions were reared in the farm-yard, special care was taken that game fowls did not mix with them; but this would occasionally happen, and while the game birds were only red and black, white feathers would naturally appear when there was any cross. The slightest impurity of strain was said to destroy the bird's courage, and the half-breeds were never trained for the pit. It became an adage that any cock would fight on his own dunghill, but it must be one without a white feather to fight in the pit.]
1842. Comic Almanack, p. 306. Precluding the possibility of anyone, at any time, showing a white feather.
Feather-bed and Pillows, subs.
phr. (venery).—A fat woman.
Feather-bed Lane, subs. phr.
(old).—A rough or stony lane.
Feather-bed Soldier, subs. phr.
(old colloquial).—A practised and
determined whoremonger.
Feck, verb (old).—To discover
the safe way of stealing or
swindling.
1848. Duncombe, Sinks of London, p. 106, s.v.
Feed, subs, (colloquial).—A meal;
spread (q.v.), or blow-out (q.v.).
Fr., une lampie (from lamper =
to gulp down). [From the stable
usage = an allowance of provender.
An analogue, however,
is found in Milton: 'For such
pleasures till that hour At feed
or fountain never had I found.']
1830. Bulwer Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 22, ed. 1854. Like most single men, being very much the gentlemen so far as money was concerned, he gave them plenty of feeds, and from time to time a very agreeable hop.
1853. Rev. E. Bradley ('C. Bede'), Verdant Green, pt. III., p. 90 (q.v.).
1861. A. Trollope, Framley Parsonage, chap. iii. . . . It's deuced shabby of him, not hunting here in his own county. He escapes all the bore of going to lectures, and giving feeds to the neighbours; that's why he treats us so.
1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. xxxiii. He had been accustomed to describe Mr. Schröder as 'a good old cock, sir; a worthy old party; kind-*hearted, and all that, and giving no end of good feeds.
18(?). Bret Harte, The Man of no Account. When the 'Skyscraper' arrived at San Francisco we had a grand feed.
1883. G. A. S[ala], in Illustr. L. News, 7 July, p. 3, col. 1. To be able to escape from a large public feed is, indeed, a sweet boon; but there are some big dinners at which attendance is a case of 'must.'
Verb (football).—1. To support; back up.
2. (theatrical).—To prompt.
3. (university).—To teach or cram (q.v.) for an examination.
At feed, subs. phr. (colloquial).—At meat.
1890. National Observer, V., p. 138 col. 1. Statesmen at feed.
d. 1674. Milton. For such pleasures till that hour At feed or fountain never had I found.
