smooth someone's feathers
smooth someone's feathers verb: to soothe (someone) who has had their feathers ruffled; to pacify (someone) who is upset.
Verb
smooth someone's feathers (third-person singular simple present smooths someone's feathers, present participle smoothing someone's feathers, simple past and past participle smoothed someone's feathers)
- To soothe (someone) who has had their feathers ruffled; to pacify (someone) who is upset.
- L'Estrange bowed and offered his arm, while Mr Millis smoothed his ruffled feathers, and went back to the other young men , — smoothed his feathers, because it would never have answered to let others see that Mr Millis had got the worst of an encounter of any kind.1882, William George Hamley, Traseaden Hall: "when George the Third was King", page 127
- She's mad at me for letting you go; so you help me smooth her feathers tonight.2007, Denise A. Bates, House of Bull, page 584
Forms of smooth someone's feathers
| third-person singular present | smooths someone's feathers |
|---|---|
| present participle | smoothing someone's feathers |
| past participle | smoothed someone's feathers |
| past | smoothed someone's feathers |
Origin of smooth someone's feathers
From the expression ruffle someone's feathers.
Questions about smooth someone's feathers
- What does smooth someone's feathers mean?
- Smooth someone's feathers means to soothe (someone) who has had their feathers ruffled; to pacify (someone) who is upset.
- What part of speech is smooth someone's feathers?
- Smooth someone's feathers is a verb.
- What is the past tense of smooth someone's feathers?
- The past tense of smooth someone's feathers is smoothed someone's feathers.
Words near smooth someone's feathers in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: smooth someone's feathers (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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