thistle-down
(ˈθɪs(ə)ldaʊn)
[f. thistle n. + down n.2]
The down or pappus which crowns the ‘seeds’ or achenes of the thistle, and by means of which they are carried along by the wind: either collectively, or that of a single ‘seed’.
| 1561 [see c]. 1585 Higins Junius' Nomencl. 112/1 Pappus, the downe of flowers which the wind bloweth about: as thistle downe. 1591 Spenser M. Hubberd 634 As a thistle-downe in th' ayre doth flie. 1723 Mandeville Fab. Bees 277 If it were a hard Winter, they mingled some Thistle down with their Rushes to keep them warm. 1879 Jefferies Wild Life in S. Co. 206 Thistledown is sometimes gathered to fill pillow-cases. 1894 Miss F. Willard in Chicago Advance 4 Oct., One sees a thistledown borne on the breeze. |
b. As a type of lightness, flimsiness, or instability; hence fig.
| 1868 W. Cory Lett. & Jrnls. (1897) 251 The thistle-down of sentiment hung about me all the time. 1904 R. Hichens Gard. Allah x, Forgive my malice... It was really a thing of thistledown. 1908 Outlook 27 Nov. 880/1 That is not to say that Christianity is to be a thistledown to be blown hither and thither at the breath of every fad and whim. |
c. attrib. Of or like thistle-down (lit. and fig.).
| 1561 Will M. Langrygge (Somerset Ho.), Thesseldowne bed. 1889 John Bull 2 Mar. 149/3 The train was of thistle⁓down brocade, that being the design brocaded, or rather embossed, upon the snowy surface of the silk. 1897 Westm. Gaz. 12 Feb. 2/1 The thistle-down character of Miss Hart. |