[ultimately a. Icel. aðar-dún: see EIDER and DOWN sb.2; the Icel. word has been adopted as Sw. ejder-dun, Da. eder-duun, Ger. eiderdon, Fr. édredon.]
1. The small soft feathers from the breast of the eider duck. Also attrib.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VI. 125. In this number we may reckon the Eider-down.
1804. Ct. Rumford, in Phil. Trans., XCIV. 85. Having its two ends well covered up with eider-down.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xvi. 167. All who could work, even at picking over eider-down.
1859. W. Collins, Q. of Hearts (1875), 17. You top up with a sweet little eider-down quilt, as light as roses.
2. = eider-down quilt.
