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Feather Duster

Household Objects
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A soft tool used to remove dust from furniture. It can suggest gentleness, neglect, and the light disturbance of memory.

Detailed Definition
A feather duster is a bundle of feathers attached to a handle and used to sweep dust from shelves, frames, and delicate objects. Its soft motion gives poets an image of care that does not quite erase what has settled. It may evoke parlors, inherited ornaments, aging rooms, or the fragile effort to preserve appearances while time continues to gather in corners.
Example
Example in poetry:
The feather duster moves lightly across the piano, stirring dust but barely changing the room; A poet may contrast a feather duster’s softness with the hard work of trying to erase the past; The speaker dusts framed photographs with a feather duster, giving careful attention to family memory; A purple feather duster in a comic poem can become an unlikely weapon or royal scepter
Additional Notes
A feather duster suggests a delicate form of cleaning rather than deep repair. Its drifting motion can evoke neglected rooms, old possessions, fragile memory, or attempts to soften the past.
Also Known As
Duster Feather Broom
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