Spitting Feathers? What do you think it means?

[erikbloodaxe]

I was just reading an article where someone used 'Spitting feathers' to mean they were angry. Now I've only ever used the term/ heard the term in meaning I'm thirsty.

I'm in my 50's and now wonder when/if the meaning changed.

What does it mean to you, Angry or Thirsty and how old are you?

Thinking about it, I'd associate "he's spitting feathers" to mean "angry" and (as per my gran and her 3p) "I couldn't spit a feather" to mean "thirsty"

Thirsty. Late 40s from north east.

Spitting blood is angry.

Angry, in my 40's.

What does it mean?

Thirsty - 40 and Lancs/Liverpool

But I have increasingly heard it to mean angry recently.

Both angry & thirsty.

54 from Lancashire.

My dad used it for angry as did my grandfather (who would have been about 100 now). Both South Wales.

They also used spitting teeth for angry - that's a lot of spit.

Thirsty here

Angry, not thirsty.

In my 70s. I learned 'spitting feathers' from my Lancashire friend, meaning being thirsty. It's self-explanatory.
In my book, being angry is 'spitting blood'.

Both. Mainly anger - spitting feathers as in cocks fighting.

@Oblomov22 interesting although I've seen cocks fighting and they didn't spit any feathers, damage is all done with feet and spurs.

I’m also from Yorkshire and in my 40s and I’ve only ever known it to mean angry.

Thirsty- late 50s,north west (originally). Also cf 'mouth drier than the bottom of a budgie's cage; to use another bird related reference for thirst.

Utterly furious! I'm from the SW

Yep same here too.

Thirsty.

Thirsty. North West. Thirsty is the original meaning. The essay below goes on to say they the 'angry' interpretation began in the 1970s.

There's even a spitting feathers brewery in Cheshire.

www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/spitting-feathers.html

Thirsty West Yorks.

Both!

I have heard/used it to describe both being angry or thirsty.

it seems interchangeable where we live.

I understand it to mean furious but I think generally spitting anything sounds like it means angry (lots of examples on here from blood to tacks). So I can see how a thirsty meaning would be taken up in that and assumed to mean angry.

I might make up my own term for furious. Spitting staplers. Spitting skewers. Spitting spoons.

Thirsty here!

Northants and London. Mid-40s. It means angry.

Thirsty

Thirsty. I'm late thirties and in the East Midlands