deplume

See also: déplumé and déplume

English

Etymology

From French déplumer, from Latin dēplūmō, from dē- + plūmō (“to cover with feathers”), from plūma (“feather”). Compare dēplūmis (“featherless”).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /diːˈpluːm/

Verb

deplume (third-person singular simple present deplumes, present participle depluming, simple past and past participle deplumed)

  1. (transitive) To strip of feathers or plumage.
    • 1655, Thomas Fuller, James Nichols, editor, The Church History of Britain, […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), new edition, London: […] [James Nichols] for Thomas Tegg and Son, […], published 1837, →OCLC:
      On the depluming of the pope every bird had his own feather.
  2. (transitive, figuratively) To lay bare; to expose.
    • c. 1841, Thomas De Quincey, Libellous Attacks...
      the exposure and depluming […] of the leading humbugs of the age

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for deplume in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)

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