1. A bed stuffed with feathers.
c. 1000. Ælfric’s Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 124. Culcites, feþerbed.
c. 1275. Lay., 17443. For nou ȝe mawe heom hebbe ase feþerbeddes.
c. 1369. Chaucer, Dethe Blaunche, 251. Of downe of pure dowves whyte I wil yive him a fether-bed.
1480. Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV. (1830), 130. Beddes called federbeddes stuffed with downe with their bolsters v.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 445 All fedder beddis forbiddin wes also.
1648. Prynne, Plea for Lords, 37. The murther of the Duke of Glocester, who was smothered to death with a Featherbed at Calues by king Richard the seconds command.
1749. Wesley, Plain Account of Kingswood School, 6. All their Beds have Mattresses on them, not Feather-beds.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, v. And let me not keep your old head longer from the pillow, but make interest with your featherbed till day-break.
fig. 1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. III. viii. 134. Such bolsters and huge featherbeds of Promotion.
1870. Lowell, Study Wind. (1886), 328. He [Dryden] has sometimes smothered the child-like simplicity of Chaucer under feather-beds of verbiage.
2. The Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus); also of the Whitethroat (Motacilla sylvia).
1854. Baker, Gloss. Northampton, I. 224. Feather-bed. The White-throat. Motacilla sylvia.
1885. Swainson, Prov. Names Brit. Birds, 26. Willow warbler … Feather bed (Oxon).
3. attrib. and Comb. a. attrib., as featherbed-campaigner, -captain, -soldier, -warrior; b. objective, as featherbed-maker. Also featherbed-lane, slang (see quot.).
1888. Times (weekly ed.), 2 Nov., 8/3. We want no *featherbed campaigners.
1692. Hickeringill, Good Old Cause, Wks. 1716, II. 529. Is it because some *Feather-bed Captains sell such Ware?
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, *Featherbed-lane, any bad Road.
c. 1513. Cocke Lorell’s B. (Percy Soc.), 9. Bed-makers, *federbed makers, and wyre drawers.
1837. J. Richardson, Movements of the British Legion, i. (ed. 2), 20. Our position, for the last few days, has certainly not been that of *feather-bed soldiers.
1872. Black, Adv. Phaeton, xxiii. 325. Each featherbed warrior who rides from Knightsbridge to Whitehall.
