Citations:plume

English citations of plume

					1843
ME «	15th c.	16th c.	17th c.	18th c.	19th c.	20th c.	21st c.

1. (transitive, reflexive, by extension) To congratulate (oneself) proudly, especially concerning something unimportant or when taking credit for another person's effort; to self-congratulate.
   • 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Three. The Second of the Three Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 75:

     Gentlemen of the free-and-easy sort, who plume themselves on being acquainted with a move or two, and being usually equal to the time-of-day, express the wide range of their capacity for adventure by observing that they are good for anything from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter; between which opposite extremes, no doubt, there lies a tolerably wide and comprehensive range of subjects.