# feather in one's cap

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. An accomplishment; particularly one that is flaunted or boasted of.
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see feather, cap.

## Etymology
The placing of a feather in a hat has been a symbol of achievement that has arisen in several cultures, apparently independently. The English writer and traveller Richard Hansard recorded it in his Description of Hungary, 1599:
"It hath been an antient custom among them [Hungarians] that none should wear a fether but he who had killed a Turk, to whom onlie yt was lawful to shew the number of his slaine enemys by the number of fethers in his cappe."
The Native American tradition of adding a feather to the head-dress of any warrior who performed a brave act is well known.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/feather-in-one-s-cap