pull someone's plumes

English

Verb

pull someone's plumes (third-person singular simple present pulls someone's plumes, present participle pulling someone's plumes, simple past and past participle pulled someone's plumes)

1. (idiomatic, obsolete) To humble, to puncture the pride of
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene i:

     that Tamburlaine:
     That like a Foxe in midſt of harueſt time,
     Dooth pray vppon my flockes of Passengers:
     And as I heare, doth meane to pull my plumes […]

   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 108, column 2:

     Let frantike Talbot triumph for a while,
     And like a Peacock ſweepe along his tayle,
     Wee’le pull his Plumes, and take away his Trayne,
     If Dolphin and the reſt will be but rul’d.

   • 1647, John Fletcher, A Wife for a Month, act V, scene i:

     How I ſhall pull your Plumes, Lords,
     How I ſhall humble you within theſe two Days?