plume

 
Pronunciation: /pluːm/

noun

  • 1a long, soft feather or arrangement of feathers used by a bird for display or worn by a person for ornament: a hat with a jaunty ostrich plume
  • Zoology a part of an animal’s body that resembles a feather: the antennae are divided into large feathery plumes
  • 2a long cloud of smoke or vapour resembling a feather as it spreads from its point of origin: as he spoke, the word was accompanied by a white plume of breath
  • a mass of material, typically a pollutant, spreading from a source: a radioactive plume
  • 3 (also mantle plume) Geology a localized column of hotter magma rising by convection in the mantle, believed to cause volcanic activity in locations away from plate margins.

verb

  • 1 [no object] spread out in a shape resembling a feather: smoke plumed from the chimneys
  • [with object] decorate with or as if with feathers: (as adjective plumed) rain began to beat down on my plumed cap
  • 2 (plume oneself) chiefly archaic (of a bird) preen itself.
  • feel a great sense of self-satisfaction about something: she plumed herself on being cosmopolitan

Derivatives

plumeless

adjective

plume-like

adjective

Origin:

late Middle English: from Old French, from Latin pluma 'down'