featherbed
featherbed Lexical Profile
featherbed Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A soft mattress or thick mattress topper stuffed with feathers or down.
"The antique four-poster frame was topped with a plush featherbed that kept guests warm on frosty nights."
• verb
North American To require an employer to hire more workers than necessary or to limit production according to a union rule or safety regulation.
"Management accused the transit union of trying to featherbed by insisting on two operators per automated train."
British To provide someone or an industry with overly generous financial support, subsidies, or pampering that shields them from competition.
"Critics argued that the government should not featherbed inefficient manufacturers with endless tax breaks."
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Dating back to Old English as 'fetherbedd', the compound combines 'feather' and 'bed'. The figurative verbal sense relating to labor unions requiring overstaffing emerged in early 20th-century American railroad slang, reportedly after an executive complained that train crews demanded comfortable featherbeds in their cabooses.