From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishplumeplume1 /pluːm/ noun [countable] 1 PIECEa cloud of smoke, dust etc which rises up into the airplume of smoke/dust/gas/spray etc A black plume of smoke rose above the city.2 DCa large feather or bunch of feathers, especially one that is used as a decoration on a hat → nom de plume
Examples from the Corpus
plume• They are extraordinary plumes, and they certainly altered the face of international wildlife conservation.• The slow-moving plume has moved thousands of yards past the five-acre yard at Bernardo Avenue and Gamble Lane, health officials say.• But the hot-spot plume that created this island has been erupting in this way since long before the Tristanians came.• To complicate matters was the fact that plumes had been such a fashionable notion.• These and other observations have led to the obvious speculation that plumes arise at the core-mantle boundary.• There was no wind to bend the plume of black smoke rising from the hospital's incineration chimney.• Tubeworms grow so as to keep their plumes in the region where the vent water and seawater mix.plume of smoke/dust/gas/spray etc• And a plume of smoke here and there.• It sent a plume of smoke hundreds of miles east across four states.• Each time we came in there was mortar fire and plumes of smoke.• Driving towards the bridge I could see a black plume of smoke.• As the Dwarfs from Karaz a Karak marched south they saw the rising plumes of smoke in front of them.• The monstrous tiger on which Asmodeus sat crept forwards, sulphurous plumes of smoke rising from its nostrils.• There was a tiny plume of smoke at infinity.• He lights a cigarette, inhales deeply, and blows two plumes of smoke through his nostrils.plumeplume2 verb [intransitive]HBB literary to rise or come out in a cloud No smoke plumed out of the factory’s great chimneys.→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
plume• The door was shut, and no smoke plumed skywards from its grey chimneys.• She plumed smoke from her nostrils.• The magazine in her hand plumed upwards in a long flame, belching smoke.Origin plume (1300-1400) Old French Latin pluma “(small soft) feather” 