or Horn. TO GIVE (or GET) THE BULL’S FEATHER (or HORN), verb. phr. (old).—To cuckold or be cuckolded: cf. ACTEON: also TO STICK A BULL’S-FEATHER IN ONE’S CAP: see HORN. Fr. plumes de bœuf. Hence KNIGHT OF THE BULL’S-FEATHER = a cuckold.

1

  1600.  SHAKESPEARE, Much Ado about Nothing, v. 1. But when shall we see the savage BULL’S HORNS on the sensible Benedict’s head.

2

  1660.  Merry Drollery, 264.

        The BULLS FEATHER [Title].
    Ibid.
    dye had I rather,
Than to be cornuted, and
    wear a BULLS FEATHER.

3

  1662.  J. WILSON, The Cheats, v., 2. D. D. How!—Stick a BULLS FEATHER in my Cap!—Make me a Knight o’ th’ forked Order! Ibid. iv. 1.

4

  1664.  COTTON, Burlesque upon Burlesque: or, The Scoffer Scofft [Works (1734), 234].

        And this same huffing Iron-side …
Stuck a BULL’S-FEATHER in his Cap.

5

  1748.  RICHARDSON, Clarissa, V. 295. A good whimsical instrument, take it altogether! But what, thinkest thou, are the arms to this matrimonial harbinger?… Three crooked horns, smartly top-knotted with ribands; which being the ladies’ wear, seem to intimate that they may very probably adorn, as well as bestow, the BULL’S FEATHER.

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