From the expressionruffle someone's feathers.
smoothsomeone'sfeathers (third-person singular simple presentsmooths someone's feathers,present participlesmoothing someone's feathers,simple past and past participlesmoothed someone's feathers)
- Tosoothe (someone) who hashad their feathers ruffled; topacify (someone) who isupset.
1882, William George Hamley,Traseaden Hall: "when George the Third was King", page127:L'Estrange bowed and offered his arm, while Mr Millissmoothed his ruffled feathers, and went back to the other young men , —smoothed his feathers, because it would never have answered to let others see that Mr Millis had got the worst of an encounter of any kind.
2007, Denise A. Bates,House of Bull, page584:She's mad at me for letting you go; so you help mesmooth her feathers tonight.
2019, Gillian Gill,Virginia Woolf: And the Women Who Shaped Her World, page192:Subsequently, Leslie's two wivessmoothed his feathers, deferred to him, bolstered him, allowed him to “say exactly what he thought, however inconvenient, and do exactly what he liked” (page 110).
