Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To dress the surface of, as cloth, by means of teazels, or by some machine or appliance substituted for them. Also tease.
  • noun A plant of the genus Dipsacus and family Dipsacaceæ, chiefly D. fullonum, the fullers' teazel, together with D. sylvestris, the wild teazel, of which the former is suspected to be a cultivated variety.
  • noun The head or bur of the plant, which is the part used in teazeling cloth.
  • noun A. teazeling-machine or any appliance substituted for the plant.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • See teasel.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative form of teasel.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of several herbs of the genus Dipsacus native to the Old World having flower heads surrounded by spiny bracts

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Fortunately teazel is a hardy plant and grows without much care.

    India Today 1953

  • In our own Kangra mission we started to produce teazel, which is that spiky plant used in woolen mills for "teazing" woolen cloth.

    India Today 1953

  • After the crop came, we would market the teazel for them and they would be greatly surprised at the sum it would fetch and become enthusiastic about growing more.

    India Today 1953

  • We would urge him to take a waste piece of land and plant the teazel plant in it.

    India Today 1953

  • If a 'prentice of mine cannot clean his platter, I know that I shall get little from him with carder and teazel.

    Micah Clarke His Statement as made to his three grandchildren Joseph, Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734 Arthur Conan Doyle 1894

  • Slugs and snails too will often attack and bite flowers, unless they are kept away by thorns and bristles, such as we find on the teazel and the burdock.

    The Fairy-Land of Science Arabella B. Buckley 1884

  • Many wire brushes and metal substitutes have been tried to take the place of nature's gift to the cloth-worker, the teazel, but nothing has been invented to replace with full satisfaction that wonderful scratcher.

    Home Life in Colonial Days Alice Morse Earle 1881

  • For the slender recurved bracts of the teazel heads are stiff and prickly enough to roughen thoroughly the nap of the cloth, yet they yield at precisely the right point to keep from injuring the fabric.

    Home Life in Colonial Days Alice Morse Earle 1881

  • we needed wun – we gots a johnny depp, but apparently himz nakid. or sumfin. wering teazel an MB, mebbee but we haz no pierate cloves yet! welkom, an fank yor for showin us yor fluffy boots an eyepatch – trooly fabyooloso!

    NOM - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008

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