Tiny parachutes let his pilot finally drift to the ground

Usage examples of thistledown.

She let her words hang in the air like thistledown floating on a breeze.

And the professor sprang up at least three feet in the air, and landed on the tips of his toes, as light as a ball of thistledown, while Master Portunus stood rubbing his hands, and chuckling with senile glee.

And most of the desert insects and small mammals were regarded as fair game by the enormous solifugid or camel spider, an ugly, beetle-like creature with immense jaws which could move so fast that it looked like a ball of thistledown blowing over the desert.

White butterflies and thistledown floated in the air, bees hummed drowsily, and fhe stately hollyhocks swayed slowly back and forth.

Family was their source of strength, as it had been through five generations of Thistledowns and beyond.

Liam Thistledown repeated over and over, a litany to take his concentration from the burning sensation beneath his britches, a litany that mischievous Liam knew all too well this time was different, though, with Liam actually admitting to himself, after a while, that he had indeed run out on his chores.

I went to the old _Greater Starship Encyclopedia_ that had come as standard issue with these slates when they had been made -- reproductions of twentieth-century antiques -- for divaricates on Thistledown.

But divaricates had generally had no more children on Thistledown than other Naderites, no more even than most Geshels.

To the oldest son of farmer Bartholemew Thistledown, the drow's blinding display brought only awe-inspired terror.

Tb the oldest son of farmer Bartholemew Thistledown, the draw’s blinding display brought only awe-inspired terror.

Imongar for the slaying of the Gargon and her leadership thereafter, though she told all that Tipperton Thistledown, stabbing her in the leg as he had done and yanking her about by the hair, he was the one who truly deserved the credit for the Gargon's demise.

The predators that devour the emptied husks of these hosts engulf as well my nymphal instars, and these eat those second hosts as well quite hollow, before we fly out like thistledown across the wind and light upon our rooting places.

All of the others, from Donald at Henley to Gervase at Maidenhead, from Thomas near Reading to Lucy near Marlow, from Ferdinand in Wokingham to Serena in Bracknell, and even Vivien in Twyford and Alicia near Windsor, all of them seemed to have put down roots in a ring round the parent house like thistledown blown on the wind and reseeding.

Remember he terrified Bart Thistledown and the poor fellow fell backward into a pot of hot vegetable soup?