thistledowns

French port dancing across the veil of rain, like thistledowns of fire, and presently we were at rest at a stone quay.

A Traveller in War-Time Winston Churchill 1909

French port dancing across the veil of rain, like thistledowns of fire, and presently we were at rest at a stone quay.

Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Winston Churchill Winston Churchill 1909

By September the purple fireweed that springs up beside old camps, and in the bois brute, had bloomed and scattered its myriad, impalpable thistledowns over crystal floors.

The Dwelling Place of Light — Volume 3 Winston Churchill 1909

By September the purple fireweed that springs up beside old camps, and in the bois brute, had bloomed and scattered its myriad, impalpable thistledowns over crystal floors.

Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Winston Churchill Winston Churchill 1909

By September the purple fireweed that springs up beside old camps, and in the bois brute, had bloomed and scattered its myriad, impalpable thistledowns over crystal floors.

The Dwelling Place of Light — Complete Winston Churchill 1909

Seaweed of strange varieties, and of every fantastic shape and texture, the round balls of fibrous grass, like gigantic thistledowns, which scurry before the light breeze, as though endued with life, the white oval shells of the cuttle-fish, and the shapeless hideous masses of dead _medusæ_, all lie about in extricable confusion on the sandy shores of the East Coast.

In Court and Kampong Being Tales and Sketches of Native Life in the Malay Peninsula Hugh Charles Clifford 1903

Page delicately, with her gloved hands, she picked off the coarse grass and the thistledowns, while Charles, empty handed, waited till she had finished.

Madame Bovary 1902

They drift downward, at first, as noiselessly as thistledowns; then they strike the rocks and come crashing towards the lake with the hollow roar of an avalanche.

Fisherman's Luck and Some Other Uncertain Things Henry Van Dyke 1892

The strange little dancers floated hither and thither over my master's baby face, as light as thistledowns, and as graceful as the slender plumes they wore in their hats and bonnets.

The Holy Cross and Other Tales Eugene Field 1872

Emma's skirt, too long, trailed a little on the ground; from time to time she stopped to pull it up, and then delicately, with her gloved hands, she picked off the coarse grass and the thistledowns, while Charles, empty handed, waited till she had finished.

Madame Bovary A Tale of Provincial Life Gustave Flaubert 1850