Definition of "featherbed" [featherbed]

• To engage in or promote featherbedding. (verb-intransitive)
• Relating to or promoting featherbedding: featherbed rules. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "I never knew before what an uninteresting thing a featherbed is – when you are obliged to hold it in your arms."
• "The knight slept as a soldier would, to whom a featherbed is a rarity, and who wakes not till he hears the blast of the reveille."
• "He was now going to a home provided by benevolent persons as a kind of featherbed to catch the falling workhouse boy."