deplumations

Noun

deplumation (usually uncountable, plural deplumations)

1. (usually) The stripping or falling off of plumes or feathers.
   • […] through the violence of her moulting, or deplumation, she comes into this earthly body deprived of that blessed life which she before enjoyed.1662, Edward Stillingfleet, Origines Sacrae
2. (usually) Loss of the eyelashes due to disease of the eyelids.
   • Systemic symptoms include headache, anorexia and sometimes nausea, vomiting, tinnitus and deafness, and deplumation or bleaching of the hair may occur.1979, Historia Ophthalmologica Internationalis - Volume 1, page 94
3. (figuratively, usually) The stripping of someone's symbol(s) of status and prestige; humiliation.
   • If any person wishes to see one of the most neat, elegant, and at the same time thorough cases of deplumation, any where to be found in literary history, in which an individual who strutted on to the stage as a peacock, was soon obliged to leave it as a dove, he has only to read Dr. Beck's articles...1851, Horace Mann, Slavery: Letters and Speeches, page 318