Word.ws English Dictionary

show the white feather

show the white feather verb: to display cowardice.

Verb

show the white feather (third-person singular simple present shows the white feather, present participle showing the white feather, simple past showed the white feather, past participle shown the white feather or (US also) showed the white feather)

  1. To display cowardice.
    • You don’t want to show the white feather in front of all the kids.1948, Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, Cheaper By the Dozen
    • I hope, Digory, you are not given to showing the white feather. I should be very sorry to think that anyone of our family had not enough honour and chivalry to go to the aid of-er-a lady in distress.1955, C. S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew

show the white feather meaning in Bengali

show the white feather in Bengali

কাপুরুষতা প্রদর্শন করা

Forms of show the white feather

third-person singular presentshows the white feather
present participleshowing the white feather
pastshowed the white feather
past participleshown the white feather
past participle US alsoshowed the white feather

Origin of show the white feather

A white feather in the tail of a cock was considered an indication that he was not of the true game breed.

Questions about show the white feather

What does show the white feather mean?
Show the white feather means to display cowardice.
What is show the white feather in Bengali?
Show the white feather in Bengali is কাপুরুষতা প্রদর্শন করা. See Show the white feather meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is show the white feather?
Show the white feather is a verb.
What is the past tense of show the white feather?
The past tense of show the white feather is showed the white feather.

Words near show the white feather in the dictionary

  1. show the cloven foot
  2. show the cloven hoof
  3. show the flag
  4. show the ropes
  5. show the way
  6. show the white feather
  7. show the white flag
  8. show time
  9. show times
  10. show towel
  11. show towels

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: show the white feather (page history and authors); show the white feather (Bengali Wiktionary) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-show the white feather.oga.

Cite this entry: “show the white feather.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/show_the_white_feather. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.