sucking-dove

English

Noun

sucking-dove (plural sucking-doves)

1. A young pigeon or dove that still has downy feathers; symbolically representing gentleness and placidity.
   • 1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     "He'd put up the feathers of a sucking-dove and set up a riot in a Quakers' meeting."