featherless

From Middle English fethirles, fedyrles, equivalent to feather +‎ -less. Cognate with Dutch veerloos, German federlos, Swedish fjäderlös.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɛðələs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɛðəɹləs/
• Hyphenation: feath‧er‧less

featherless (not comparable)

1. Having no feathers.

   Synonyms: apteric, unfeathered

   Coordinate terms: defeathered, plucked

   • 1911, D. H. Lawrence, The White Peacock, London: Heinemann, page 128:

     He eyed me with contempt: great featherless, half winged bird as I was, incomprehensible, contemptible, but awful.

   • 1929 June, Robert E. Howard, “Rattle of Bones”, in Weird Tales:

     […] clad in a featherless hat and somber black garments, which set off the dark pallor of his forbidding face.