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Under a Coronet his flowing haire / In curles on either cheek plaid, wings he wore / Of many a colourd plume ſprinkl'd with Gold, / His habit fit for ſpeed ſuccinct, and held / Before his decent ſteps a Silver wand.
The firſt thing that ſtruck Manfred’s eyes was a groupe of his ſervants endeavouring to raiſe ſomething that appeared to him a mountain of ſable plumes. […] [W]hat a ſight for a father’s eyes!—he beheld his child daſhed to pieces, and almoſt buried under an enormous helmet, an hundred times more large than any caſque ever made for human being, and ſhaded with a proportionable quantity of black feathers.
The fearful infant turn'd his head away, / And on his nurſe's neck reclining lay, / His unknown father ſhunning with affright, / And looking back on ſo uncouth a ſight; / Daunted to ſee a face with ſteel o'er-ſpread, / And his high plume that nodded o'er his head.
Tidal gravitational effects cause plumes of sodium silicate to erupt from Elaaden's core, depositing unusually pure silicon sand across the surface—invaluable for manufacturing high-performance computer hardware.
Sense 1 (“to adorn, cover, or furnish with feathers or plumes”) is derived from Anglo-Normanplumer(“to cover with or provide with feathers”), or its etymonLatinplūmāre, the presentactiveinfinitive of plūmō(“to grow feathers, to fledge; to cover with feathers, to feather; to embroider with a feathery pattern”) (and compare Late Latinplūmō(“to attach feathers to arrows; of a hawk: to pluck the feathers from prey; (figurative) to celebrate, praise”)), from plūma(“feather; plumage; down”) (see etymology 1) + -ō(suffix forming regular first-conjugationverbs).
Senses 2–4 (“to arrange and preen the feathers of; to congratulate (oneself) proudly; to strip of feathers”) are from Late Middle Englishplumen(“to remove the feathers from a bird; of a hawk: to pluck the feathers or the head from prey”), from Anglo-Norman and Middle Frenchplumer(“to remove the feathers from a bird; to pull out (hairs, especially from a moustache); to rob”), from plūma (see etymology 1).
Sense 5 (“to fan out or spread in a cloud”) is derived from plume(noun).
Verb
plume (third-person singular simple presentplumes, present participlepluming, simple past and past participleplumed)
I make no doubt she has made the best of her way back to the hospitable hall of Sir Watkyn Williams Wynne; and may very possibly be pluming her wings, at this present writing, among the breezy bowers of Wynnstay.
1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: J Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer,, published 1727, →OCLC:
We mention this Obſervation, not with any View of pretending to account for ſo odd a Behaviour, but lest ſome Critic should hereafter plume himſelf on diſcovering it.
Gentlemen of the free-and-easy sort, who plume themselves on being acquainted with a move or two, and being usually equal to the time-of-day, express the wide range of their capacity for adventure by observing that they are good for anything from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter; between which opposite extremes, no doubt, there lies a tolerably wide and comprehensive range of subjects.
But now thy armour beauteous, / all brass-belaid and sparkling, / Among the Troïans is held: / for motley-helmed Hector / Across his shoulders bearing it / plumeth himself; nor deem I / Long shall he vaunt it; sith alsó / on him o'erhangeth slaughter.
Meanwhile the young stranger had made his way through the crowd, but, as he passed, he heard all around him such words muttered as, "Look at the cockeril!" "Behold how he plumeth himself!"
The hauke proineth when ſhe fetcheth oyle with her beake over the taile, and anointeth her feet and her fethers. She plumeth when ſhe pulleth fethers of anie foule and caſteth them from her.