Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The silky down attached to the seedlike fruit of a thistle.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The soft, feathery
pappus attached to theseeds of athistle .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun pappus of a thistle consisting of silky featherlike hairs attached to the seed-like fruit of a thistle
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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A thing as important as thistledown is as unimportantly dismissed.
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A thing as important as thistledown is as unimportantly dismissed.
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A thin mist floated like thistledown from the marshes, which were so distant that they were visible only as a pinkish edge to the horizon.
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We also believed that there's a secret name which, if you call the thistledown by, will make it fly into your hand.
Qwaider Planet 2008
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Vanaheim, long before those times I have memories (living memories) of earlier drifts, when, like thistledown before the breeze, we drifted south before the face of the descending polar ice-cap.
Chapter 21 2010
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Henry's post starts: "Unafraid as I am to pin my hamster to the mast in a sudden crisis, I shall splench my mainwairing to the thistledown and gladiate hencewithstanding."
Weblogs Maxine 2009
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Did he ever (like most of us) catch some floating bit of emotional thistledown & go on from that, or did he plan on a subject like an architect?
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Henry's post starts: "Unafraid as I am to pin my hamster to the mast in a sudden crisis, I shall splench my mainwairing to the thistledown and gladiate hencewithstanding."
Pinning one's hamster to the mast Maxine 2008
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Henry's post starts: "Unafraid as I am to pin my hamster to the mast in a sudden crisis, I shall splench my mainwairing to the thistledown and gladiate hencewithstanding."
Pinning one's hamster to the mast Maxine 2008
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Grit and thistledown rushed past on the wind; shadows from the trees lining the road cut the ground like the dark lances of forest spirits.
The Tudors: King Takes Queen Elizabeth Massie 2010
bilby commented on the word thistledown
"'No, I'm not. Alan has a hot air balloon. He says he finds it useful in his work.' She laughed. 'I think that is just an excuse, though; it's for the sport mostly. It's great fun. A good way for spotting animals.'
'Can you steer it?'
'Not very well. You go where the wind listeth, like a thistledown.'"
- 'Windfall', Desmond Bagley.
January 6, 2008
wytukaze commented on the word thistledown
Citation at sedge.
November 13, 2008