feather one's own nest
feather one's own nest is the alternative form of feather one's nest.
Meaning of feather one's nest
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)
- 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...
- Synonyms:
- line one's pockets, look out for number one
Forms of feather one's own nest
| third-person singular present | feathers one's own nest |
|---|---|
| present participle | feathering one's own nest |
| past participle | feathered one's own nest |
| past | feathered one's own nest |
Questions about feather one's own nest
- What is feather one's own nest the alternative form of?
- Feather one's own nest is the alternative form of feather one's nest.
Words near feather one's own nest in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: feather one's own nest (page history and authors); 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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “feather one's own nest.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/feather_one%27s_own_nest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.