Definition of Featherbedding

1. Noun. The practice (usually by a labor union) of requiring an employer to hire more workers than are required.

Generic synonyms: Pattern, Practice

Definition of Featherbedding

1. Verb. (present participle of featherbed) ¹

2. Noun. (American English) The employment of more workers than is necessary because of union rules, especially upon the introduction of new technology ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Featherbedding

1. [n -S]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Featherbedding

feather boa
feather duster
feather dusters
feather geranium
feather in one's cap
feather one's nest
feather one's own nest
feather palm
feather pen
feather star
feather wool
featherback
featherbed
featherbedded
featherbedding (current term)
featherbeddings
featherbeds
featherbrain
featherbrained
featherbrains
featherdown
feathered
featheredge
featheredged
featheredges
featheredging
featheredness
featherfeet
featherfew

Literary usage of Featherbedding

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Aviation Safety: Congressional Hearing edited by Slade Gorton (2000)
"CERTIFICATION FEES HAVE NOT WORKED OVERSEAS Certification fees are subject to bureaucratic manipulation—the examples of goldplating and featherbedding are ..."

2. Report of the Railway Accounting Officers by Association of American Railroads Accounting Division (1888)
""The labor line," he said, "leads to an end of featherbedding waste and sounder labor relations on the railroads; the merger track, leads to an essential ..."

3. Muhammad Ali & Company by Thomas Hauser (1998)
"featherbedding jobs. Any great heavyweight of the past would stand out among them, but Tyson is something more. His hand- speed is superb; his power awesome ..."

4. Military Transformation and the Defense Industry After Next: The Defense by Peter J. Dombrowski, Eugene Gholz, Andrew L. Ross (2002)
"... like SAIC) allege that the lack of a profit motive in FFRDC work leads to inefficient performance and the potential for featherbedding. ..."

5. Sustaining the Transition: The Social Safety Net in Postcommunist Europe by Ethan B. Kapstein, Michael Mandelbaum (1997)
"... work was an obligation, as antiparasite laws in the USSR especially made explicit. One can call it featherbedding, over- full employment,4 or hidden ..."

6. Meeting Megacity Challenges: A Role for Innovation and Technology by National Research Council (1999)
"In addition, in some developing countries (eg, Bangladesh, Egypt), the repression of unions has often been coupled with actions (such as featherbedding in ..."

7. Jobless, Moneyless, & Free: Prospects for a New Social Order / Y Walter Prytulak by Prytulak, Walter (1980)
"We shall ignore for a while the question of unproductive jobs, efficiency, loafing, featherbedding and strikes. In Geriatric Medicine, Dr. EJ Stieglitz ..."

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