1. trans. To strip of feathers; to unplume.
1483. Cath. Angl., 124/2. To vn-Fedyr, expennare, explumare.
1586. J. Hooker, Hist. Irel., in Holinshed, II. 116/2. He so handled the matter, that he had vnfethered him of his best friends, aids, and helps.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, II. x. 236. I will love him that shall trace, or vnfeather me.
a. 1639. T. Carew, Poems, Wks. (1824), 79. Love lent thee wings to flye, so hee Unfeather’d, now must rest with mee.
1681. Rycaut, trans. Gracian’s Critick, 183. None are here of those who can … unfeather our Nests, whilst they enwrap us in the quilts.
1769. Colman, Oxonian in Town, I. 8. Ay, ay, we’ll unfeather the whole nest in time.
2. intr. To lose the feathers.
1849. J. A. Carlyle, trans. Dante’s Inf., 202. When poor Icarus felt his loins unfeather by the heating of the wax.
