Word.ws English Dictionary

feather one's nest

Syllables: feath·er one's nest/ˈfɛð.ə(ɹ)wʌnz ˌnɛst/UK/ˈfɛð.ə wʌnz ˌnɛst/

feather one's nest verb: to achieve benefits, especially financial ones, by taking advantage of the opportunities with which one is presented; to amass a comfortable amount of personal wealth; especially, to do so to a degree that involves venality (e.g., insider trading, police corruption).

Verb

feather one's nest (third-person singular simple present feathers one's nest, present participle feathering one's nest, simple past and past participle feathered one's nest)

  1. (idiomatic) To achieve benefits, especially financial ones, by taking advantage of the opportunities with which one is presented; to amass a comfortable amount of personal wealth; especially, to do so to a degree that involves venality (e.g., insider trading, police corruption).
    • It may do him some harm, perhaps, but Dempster must have feathered his nest pretty well; he can afford to lose a little business.1857, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “[Janet’s Repentance.] Chapter 13”, in Scenes of Clerical Life […], volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published January 1858...
    • But it would be very unjust to think of all the Railway Members as speculators and simply out to feather their own nests, not that it is fair to think of George Hudson in this light alone.1960 March, N. Caplan, “The Railway Member of Parliament”, in Railway Magazine, page 207

Synonyms of feather one's nest

Forms of feather one's nest

third-person singular presentfeathers one's nest
present participlefeathering one's nest
past participlefeathered one's nest
pastfeathered one's nest
alternative formfeather one's own nest

Questions about feather one's nest

What does feather one's nest mean?
Feather one's nest means to achieve benefits, especially financial ones, by taking advantage of the opportunities with which one is presented; to amass a comfortable amount of personal wealth; especially, to do so to a degree that involves venality (e.g., insider trading, police corruption).
What part of speech is feather one's nest?
Feather one's nest is a verb.
How do you pronounce feather one's nest?
Feather one's nest is pronounced /ˈfɛð.ə(ɹ)wʌnz ˌnɛst/.
What is the past tense of feather one's nest?
The past tense of feather one's nest is feathered one's nest.

Words near feather one's nest in the dictionary

  1. feather edging
  2. feather grass
  3. feather in one's cap
  4. feather merchant
  5. feather merchants
  6. feather one's nest
  7. feather one's own nest
  8. feather ore
  9. feather ores
  10. feather oyster
  11. feather oysters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: feather one's nest (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-feather one's nest.ogg.

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