TASSEL

tassel

(noun) adornment consisting of a bunch of cords fastened at one end

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

tassel (plural tassels)

A ball-shaped bunch of plaited or otherwise entangled threads from which at one end protrudes a cord on which the ball is hung, and which may have loose, dangling threads at the other end (often used as decoration along the bottom of garments, curtains or other hangings).

(botany) The panicle on a male plant of maize, which consists of loose threads with anthers on them.

The loose hairs at the end of a braid.

A narrow silk ribbon, or similar, sewed to a book to be put between the pages.

(architecture) A piece of board that is laid upon a wall as a sort of plate, to give a level surface to the ends of floor timbers.

A kind of bur used in dressing cloth; a teasel.

A thin plate of gold on the back of a bishop's gloves.

Verb

tassel (third-person singular simple present tassels, present participle tasseling or tasselling, simple past and past participle tasseled or tasselled)

(transitive) To adorn with tassels.

(intransitive, botany) To put forth a tassel or flower.

Anagrams

• Slates, astels, leasts, salets, slates, stales, steals, stelas, teslas

Source: Wiktionary

Tas"sel, n. (Falconry)

Definition: A male hawk. See Tercel.

Tas"sel, n. Etym: [See Teasel.]

Definition: A kind of bur used in dressing cloth; a teasel.

Tas"sel, n. Etym: [OE., a fastening of a mantle, OF. tassel a fastening, clasp, F. tasseau a bracket, Fr. L. taxillus a little die, dim. of talus a die of a longish shape, rounded on two sides and marked only on the other four, a knuckle bone.]

1. A pendent ornament, attached to the corners of cushions, to curtains, and the like, ending in a tuft of loose threads or cords.

2. The flower or head of some plants, esp. when pendent. And the maize field grew and ripened, Till it stood in all the splendor Of its garments green and yellow, Of its tassels and its plumage. Longfellow.

3. A narrow silk ribbon, or the like, sewed to a book to be put between the leaves.

4. (Arch.)

Definition: A piece of board that is laid upon a wall as a sort of plate, to give a level surface to the ends of floor timbers; -- rarely used in the United States. Tassel flower (Bot.), a name of several composite plants of the genus Cineraria, especially the C. sconchifolia, and of the blossoms which they bear.

Tas"sel, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Tasseled or Tasselled; p. pr. & vb. n. Tasseling or Tasselling.]

Definition: To put forth a tassel or flower; as, maize tassels.

Tas"sel, v. t.

Definition: To adorn with tassels. Chaucer.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition