spit feathers

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Verb

spit feathers (third-person singular simple present spits feathers, present participle spitting feathers, simple past spat feathers or (US) spit feathers, past participle spat feathers)

1. (idiomatic) To feel very thirsty.
   • 2003, Robert David MacDonald, “Salto Mortale”, in Plays Two, →ISBN, page 94:

     Where is that sodding drink? I'm spitting feathers.

   • 2003, M. Dylan Raskin, Little New York Bastard, →ISBN, page 202:

     I was just about spitting feathers. My throat was so dry and sore that I could barely feel my own tongue.

   • 2010, Peter Bond, Exodus: Earth Fights Back, →ISBN, page 135:

     “I've always liked camomile tea, and I'm spitting feathers after walking all the way over here. Nothing quenches the thirst like camomile tea.”

2. (idiomatic) To feel very angry; to sputter angrily.
   • 2007, Imogen Edwards-Jones, Anonymous, Fashion Babylon, →ISBN, page 19:

     He is high as a kite on Fair Trade espressos and spitting feathers that Ted Nicholls is apparently having some sort of comeback.

   • 2011, Jonathan Wright, Heretics: The Creation of Christianity from the Gnostics to the Modern Church, →ISBN, page 258:

     Yesterday's heresy—the sort of thing that made orthodox theologians spit feathers—becomes today's tourist attraction.

   • 2012, Tom Bennett, Teacher: Mastering the Art and Craft of Teaching, →ISBN, page 43:

     Spartan education was entirely geared to the sublimation of the individual to the state, the disintegration of the ego and its reorientation as an agent of Spartan civilization. Proponents of child-centred education would spit feathers, I imagine.

Usage notes

• Often used in the present participial form: spitting feathers.

Synonyms

• (to feel very thirsty): spit cotton
• (to feel very angry; to sputter angrily): spit nails