Featherbed

Definitions

1. A mattress stuffed with feathers.
2. An area of bog where a layer of moss covers a pool of water or mud, presenting a hazard to walkers who may fall through it. (Also in UK and Irish placenames.)
   UK, especially
3. A soft, slow pitch of predictable bounce.

Equivalents

Examples

“There are mires, bogs, and 'featherbeds' or quaking bogs. With the first two, look⟳ for the tussocks of heavy grass or rushes around the edges, which offer⟳ a relatively firm footing, but if you see⟳ a stretch⟳ of bright green sphagnum moss, for God's sake stay⟳ away from it. The moss is a mat covering a pit of wet⟳ ooze; […]”

“[…] bog. The writers and the old fellows you meet⟳ in pubs will tell⟳ you to look⟳ out for grass or 'bright green areas', and to fear the land⟳ that looks the easiest; but bogs - 'featherbeds', the locals call⟳ them - might be marked[…]”

“[...] a featherbed bog of moss and cotton grasses. Much of their effort has just burned away to nothing — the peat giving[…]”

CEFR level