Word.ws English Dictionary

feathers one's nest

feathers one's nest is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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)

  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...

Questions about feathers one's nest

What is feathers one's nest the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Feathers one's nest is the third-person singular simple present indicative of feather one's nest.

Words near feathers one's nest in the dictionary

  1. featherpate
  2. featherpated
  3. featherpates
  4. feathers
  5. feathers in one's cap
  6. feathers one's nest
  7. feathers one's own nest
  8. feathershank
  9. feathersome
  10. featherstick
  11. feathersticks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: feathers one's 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.

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