feather one's nest

• feather one's own nest

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feather one's nest

1. (idiomatic) To achieve benefits, especially financial ones, by taking advantage of the opportunities with which one is presented; to amass a comfortable amount of personal wealth.
   • 1858, George Eliot, chapter 13, in Scenes of Clerical Life:

     Dempster must have feathered his nest pretty well; he can afford to lose a little business.

• (to achieve benefits, especially financial ones): enrich, line one's pockets, look out for number one

• every man for himself
• featherbed
• nest egg