spit feathers

present singular third person spits feathers · participle present spitting feathers · participle past spat feathers · past spat feathers

1. idiomaticTo feel very thirsty.

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

   2003, Robert David MacDonald, “Salto Mortale”, in Plays Two, →ISBN, page 94

   2 more examples

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

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

   “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.”

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

   Synonyms: spit cotton

2. idiomaticTo feel very angry; to sputter angrily.

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

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

   2 more examples

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

   2007, Imogen Edwards-Jones, Anonymous, Fashion Babylon, →ISBN, page 19

   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.

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

   Synonyms: spit nails