aigrette

plural aigrettes · alternative aigret

1. A feather or plume, or feather-shaped item, used as an adornment or ornament, typically in hats or hair.

   She was formal in manner, and made calls in rustling, steel-gray brocades and a tall bonnet with bristling aigrettes.

   1918, Willa Cather, My Ántonia, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Book 2, Chapter 11, p. 241

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   This bauble, said he, shewing me an elegant sprig of diamonds, is an aigret, sent in last week by a lady of quality, who has ever since kept home with her head muffled up in a double clout for a pretended fit of the tooth-ache.

   1756, George Colman, The Connoisseur, volume 2, London: R. Baldwin, page 706

   His turban, furled in many a graceful fold, / An emerald aigrette, with Haidée's hair in't, / Surmounted as its clasp […]

   1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, III.77

   On a stool, in front [of the throne], was placed a human skull, crowned with an immense emerald, of a pyramidal form, and surmounted by an aigrette of brilliant plumes and precious stones.

   1843, William H. Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico, New York: Harper & Brothers, Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 2, p. 33

   At intervals you behold the passage of sounds of all forms which come from the triple peal of Saint-Germain des Prés. Then, again, from time to time, this mass of sublime noises opens and gives passage to the beats of the Ave Maria, which bursts forth and sparkles like an aigrette of stars.

   1888, Victor Hugo, translated by Isabel Florence Hapgood, Notre-Dame de Paris, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, Volume 1, Book 3, Chapter 2, p. 149

   Young women attired often in nothing more than ostrich-feather aigrettes dyed in colors of doubtful taste ran nubilely up and down the marble staircases, chased by young men in razor-toed ball shoes of patent-leather.

   2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 181

2. biologyThe lesser white heron.

   Birds of many kinds skimmed the weedy flats. George pointed out a flock of aigrets, the beautiful wild fowl with the priceless plumes.

   1912, Zane Grey, chapter 3, in Ken Ward in the Jungle, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 31

   Synonyms: egret

3. The feathery crown of some seeds (such as the dandelion).