Of a dispersed substance such as dust or smoke: to fan out or spread in a cloud.
Origin
From Late Middle English plum, plume, from Anglo-Norman plum, plume and Middle French, Old French plume, plome (modern French plume), and directly from its etymon Latin plūma (compare Late Latin plūma), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *plewk-. The English word is a pluma.
Senses 2–4 (“to arrange and preen the feathers of; to congratulate (oneself) proudly; to strip of feathers”) are from Late Middle English plumen, from Anglo-Norman and Middle French plumer, from plūma (see etymology 1).
Sense 5 (“to fan out or spread in a cloud”) is derived from plume.
Modern English dictionary
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