Idiom
feather in one's cap
Meaning
An accomplishment; particularly one that is flaunted or boasted of.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Winning the award was a real feather in his cap.”
“She considered the promotion a feather in her cap after years of hard work.”
“Securing a contract with the city's largest tech firm was a major feather in her cap, proving to the board that she could handle high-pressure sales.”
“The young diplomat regarded the successful treaty negotiation as the finest feather in his cap, one he would mention at every dinner party for decades.”
Examples
simple
“Winning the award was a real feather in his cap.”
contextual
“She considered the promotion a feather in her cap after years of hard work.”
“Securing a contract with the city's largest tech firm was a major feather in her cap, proving to the board that she could handle high-pressure sales.”
complex
“The young diplomat regarded the successful treaty negotiation as the finest feather in his cap, one he would mention at every dinner party for decades.”
Origin
The placing of a feather in a hat has been a symbol of achievement that has arisen in several cultures, apparently independently. The English writer and traveller Richard Hansard recorded it in his Description of Hungary, 1599: "It hath been an antient custom among them [Hungarians] that none should wear a fether but he who had killed a Turk, to whom onlie yt was lawful to shew the number of his slaine enemys by the number of fethers in his cappe." The Native American tradition of adding a feather to the head-dress of any warrior who performed a brave act is well known.
Key words
Related idioms
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