Definitions for featherbed
feath·erbed

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. feather bed, featherbedverb

   a mattress stuffed with feathers

2. pamper, featherbed, cosset, cocker, baby, coddle, mollycoddle, spoil, indulgeverb

   treat with excessive indulgence

   "grandparents often pamper the children"; "Let's not mollycoddle our students!"

3. featherbedverb

   hire more workers than are necessary

WiktionaryRate this definition:2.0 / 1 vote

1. featherbednoun

   A mattress stuffed with feathers

2. featherbedverb

   To treat someone with excessive indulgence; to pamper, cosset or mollycoddle

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Featherbednoun

   A bed stuffed with feathers; a soft bed.

   Etymology: feather and bed.

   The husband cock looks out, and strait is sped,
   And meets his wife, which brings her featherbed. John Donne.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. featherbed

   A tick mattress, bed tick or tick is a large bag made of strong, stiff, tightly-woven material (ticking). This is then filled to make a mattress, with material such as straw, chaff, horsehair, coarse wool or down feathers,: 674-5 vol1  and less commonly, leaves, grass, reeds, bracken, or seaweed. The whole stuffed mattress may also, more loosely, be called a tick. The tick mattress may then be sewn through to hold the filling in place, or the unsecured filling could be shaken and smoothed as the beds were aired each morning. A straw-filled bed tick is called a paillasse, palliasse, or pallet, and these terms may also be used for bed ticks with other fillings. A tick filled with flock (loose, unspun fibers, traditionally of cotton or wool) is called a flockbed. A feather-filled tick is called a featherbed, and a down-filled one a downbed; these can also be used above the sleeper, as a duvet.A tick mattress (or a pile of such tick mattresses, softest topmost, and the sheets, bedcovers, and pillows), was what Europeans traditionally called a "bed". The bedframe, when present, supported the bed, but was not considered part of it.: 674-5 vol1 

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. featherbed

   Featherbed refers to a practice where companies or labor unions engage in the unnecessary hiring or overstaffing of employees to create jobs, demand higher wages, or extend the amount of work to be done. This practice generally provides excessive job security and income at the cost of efficiency and productivity. Additionally, it can also refer to a mattress or mattress pad filled with feathers.

WikidataRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Featherbed

   A featherbed is a type of bedding traditionally used on top of mattresses to help make them softer. They can be made either with feathers, down, or a combination of both materials. Most people recommend that you shake out or fluff the featherbed often to keep the feathers evenly distributed. Featherbeds were only for the rich in the 14th century, but by the 19th century they were a comfort that ordinary people could aspire to - especially if they kept a few geese. The beds, also called feather ticks or feather mattresses, were valuable possessions. People made wills promising them to the next generation, and emigrants, travelling to the New World from Europe, packed up bulky featherbeds and took them on the voyage. If you didn't inherit one, you needed to buy up to 50 pounds of feathers, or save feathers from years of plucking until there were enough for a new bed. The feathers could be saved from geese or ducks being prepared for cooking. In England servant-girls were often allowed to keep feathers from poultry they'd plucked, and could save them to make a featherbed or pillows for their future married life. Live birds might have their soft downy breast feathers harvested three or four times a year, as described in an account from 20th century Missouri. Some poultry feathers were undesirable for mattress-making, especially chicken feathers. The best featherbeds were filled with a high proportion of down; larger feathers needed to have their quills clipped.

Matched Categories

1. • Hire
   • Treat

Anagrams for featherbed »

1. befathered

How to pronounce featherbed?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say featherbed in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of featherbed in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of featherbed in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

Examples of featherbed in a Sentence

1. Edith Wharton:

   Life is either always a tight-rope or a featherbed. Give me a tight-rope.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=featherbed
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Featherbed
3. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=featherbed
4. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Featherbed
5. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
6. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=featherbed