feather merchant

Noun

feather merchant (plural feather merchants)

1. (slang) A civilian.
   • But do you know that you are also a feather merchant-you and 120,000,000 other Americans? "Feather Merchants" is G.I. slang for civilians, and Max Shulman has done a book which points out why with a million irreverent, barbed laughs.1944, The Publishers Weekly - Volume 145, page 1193
   • One more point, the aide says, also, this Arthur Zooks is not only the general's high-school classmate, but is a Very Important Person —in Feather Merchant circles.1948, Infantry Journal - Volumes 62-63, page 24
2. (broadly, slang) Someone with a cushy job or without combat experience.
   • Everybody who works for a feather merchant knows where all the trouble is — at higher headquarters. At least, that's what the feather merchant says.1982, Infantry School (U.S.), United States Army Infantry School, United States Army Infantry School. Editorial and Pictorial Office, Infantry - Volumes 72-73
   • What's wrong? You feather merchants can't handle the mission?2007, F.K. Milton, Fat Kid's War, page 9
3. (broadly, slang) Someone who does not do worthwhile work; someone who is more appearance than substance.
   • This gentleman was bred a feather merchant, and plumes himself upon his eloquence; but, on the present occasion, “the down of his feelings” (as Mr. Bran; don elegantly expresses it) was considerably ruffled by the hooting of his auditors.1808, Satirist - Volume 3, page 362
   • The mayor said he doesn't want "feather merchants" to sell their products near schools.1991, Martin L. Gibson, Editing in the Electronic Era, page 130
4. (slang) A short man.
   • A standard joke among painters is that, "(this or that) feather-merchant is so short he needs a step-ladder to paint the baseboard."1969, Alton Chester Morris, Southern Folklore Quarterly - Volume 33, page 314
   • The shortest, or the "Feather Merchants," as the smaller men were so inappropriately designated, brought up the rear.2007, Neil Moloney, Class of Twenty-Eight
5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see feather, merchant. One who sells feathers.
   • Both ivory and ostrich feathers have lost much of their commercial importance during late years; but there are still feather merchants at Mogador who are in communication with all the districts of the Desert where the bird is found.1859, A Gazetteer of the World
   • An ostrich farmer may sell to a feather merchant licensed under this Ordinance or may export from the Colony ostrich feathers obtained from domesticated ostriches kept by him.1926, Sir Jacob William Barth, Robert William Lyall Grant, The Laws of Kenya, page 1191