plume / ploōm/ • n. a long, soft feather or arrangement of feathers used by a bird for display or worn by a person for ornament: a hat with a jaunty ostrich plume. ∎  Zool. a part of an animal's body that resembles a feather: the antennae are divided into large feathery plumes. ∎  a long cloud of smoke or vapor resembling a feather as it spreads from its point of origin: as he spoke, the word was accompanied by a white plume of breath. ∎  a mass of material, typically a pollutant, spreading from a source: a radioactive plume. ∎  (also mantle plume) Geol. a localized column of hot magma rising by convection in the mantle, believed to cause volcanic activity in hot spots, such as the Hawaiian Islands, away from plate margins.• v. 1. [intr.] spread out in a shape resembling a feather: smoke plumed from the chimneys. ∎  [tr.] decorate with or as if with feathers: [as adj.] (plumed) a plumed cap. 2. (plume oneself) chiefly archaic (of a bird) preen itself. ∎ fig. feel a great sense of self-satisfaction about something: she plumed herself on being cosmopolitan.DERIVATIVES: plume·less adj.plume·like / -ˌlīk/ adj.plum·er·y / -mərē/ n.

Plume

A flowing, often somewhat conical, trail of emissions from a continuous point source , for example the plume of smoke from a chimney. As a plume spreads, its constituents are diluted into the surrounding medium. When plumes disperse in media with high turbulence, they can take on more complex shapes with loops and meanders. This somewhat chaotic nature has lead to probabilistic descriptions of the concentration of materials in plumes; for example, calculations concerning the downstream impact of pollutants released from pipes and chimneys will be couched in terms of average concentrations. Typically plumes are found in air or water, but plumes of trace contaminants may also be found in less-mobile media such as soils.

plume plumed serpent a mythical creature depicted as part bird, part snake, in particular Quetzalcóatl, a god of the Toltec and Aztec civilizations having this form.

See also borrowed plumes at borrow.

Plume

anything resembling a plume of feathers or a tuft of waving hair.

Examples : plume of distinction, 1848; of feathers, 1711; curling plumes of hair, 1870; of smoke, 1878; plumes of the woodland, 1859.

plume feather (now spec.). XIV. — (O)F.:— L. plūma.
Hence vb. furnish with plumes XV; refl. of a bird, to dress its feathers XVIII.