"smooth someone's feathers" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "From the expression ruffle someone's feathers.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "smooths someone's feathers",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "smoothing someone's feathers",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "smoothed someone's feathers",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "smoothed someone's feathers",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "smooths someone's feathers",
        "2": "smoothing someone's feathers",
        "3": "smoothed someone's feathers"
      },
      "expansion": "smooth someone's feathers (third-person singular simple present smooths someone's feathers, present participle smoothing someone's feathers, simple past and past participle smoothed someone's feathers)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1882, William George Hamley, Traseaden Hall: \"when George the Third was King\", page 127:",
          "text": "L'Estrange bowed and offered his arm, while Mr Millis smoothed his ruffled feathers, and went back to the other young men , — smoothed his feathers, because it would never have answered to let others see that Mr Millis had got the worst of an encounter of any kind.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Denise A. Bates, House of Bull, page 584:",
          "text": "She's mad at me for letting you go; so you help me smooth her feathers tonight.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Gillian Gill, Virginia Woolf: And the Women Who Shaped Her World, page 192:",
          "text": "Subsequently, Leslie's two wives smoothed his feathers, deferred to him, bolstered him, allowed him to “say exactly what he thought, however inconvenient, and do exactly what he liked” (page 110).",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To soothe (someone) who has had their feathers ruffled; to pacify (someone) who is upset."
      ],
      "id": "en-smooth_someone's_feathers-en-verb-wgBYU7rK",
      "links": [
        [
          "soothe",
          "soothe"
        ],
        [
          "had their feathers ruffled",
          "ruffle someone's feathers"
        ],
        [
          "pacify",
          "pacify"
        ],
        [
          "upset",
          "upset"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "smooth someone's feathers"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "From the expression ruffle someone's feathers.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "smooths someone's feathers",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "smoothing someone's feathers",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "smoothed someone's feathers",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "smoothed someone's feathers",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "smooths someone's feathers",
        "2": "smoothing someone's feathers",
        "3": "smoothed someone's feathers"
      },
      "expansion": "smooth someone's feathers (third-person singular simple present smooths someone's feathers, present participle smoothing someone's feathers, simple past and past participle smoothed someone's feathers)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1882, William George Hamley, Traseaden Hall: \"when George the Third was King\", page 127:",
          "text": "L'Estrange bowed and offered his arm, while Mr Millis smoothed his ruffled feathers, and went back to the other young men , — smoothed his feathers, because it would never have answered to let others see that Mr Millis had got the worst of an encounter of any kind.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Denise A. Bates, House of Bull, page 584:",
          "text": "She's mad at me for letting you go; so you help me smooth her feathers tonight.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Gillian Gill, Virginia Woolf: And the Women Who Shaped Her World, page 192:",
          "text": "Subsequently, Leslie's two wives smoothed his feathers, deferred to him, bolstered him, allowed him to “say exactly what he thought, however inconvenient, and do exactly what he liked” (page 110).",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To soothe (someone) who has had their feathers ruffled; to pacify (someone) who is upset."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "soothe",
          "soothe"
        ],
        [
          "had their feathers ruffled",
          "ruffle someone's feathers"
        ],
        [
          "pacify",
          "pacify"
        ],
        [
          "upset",
          "upset"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "smooth someone's feathers"
}