Crossword clues for thistle
thistle
- Heraldic emblem of Scotland
- Any of numerous plants of the family Compositae and especially of the genera Carduus and Cirsium and Onopordum having prickly-edged leaves
- Meadow bloom
- Emblem of Scotland
- Man's replacing one in newspaper plant
- One way lake gets covered by the plant
- Scottish national emblem
- Scottish emblem
- Scots emblem
- National symbol, not that large, wrapped in note
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Thistle \This"tle\, n. [OE. thistil, AS. [thorn]istel; akin to D. & G. distel, OHG. distila, distil, Icel. [thorn]istill, Sw. tistel, Dan. tidsel; of uncertain origin.] (Bot.) Any one of several prickly composite plants, especially those of the genera Cnicus, Craduus, and Onopordon. The name is often also applied to other prickly plants.
Blessed thistle, Carduus benedictus, so named because it was formerly considered an antidote to the bite of venomous creatures.
Bull thistle, Cnicus lanceolatus, the common large thistle of neglected pastures.
Canada thistle, Cnicus arvensis, a native of Europe, but introduced into the United States from Canada.
Cotton thistle, Onopordon Acanthium.
Fuller's thistle, the teasel.
Globe thistle, Melon thistle, etc. See under Globe, Melon, etc.
Pine thistle, Atractylis gummifera, a native of the Mediterranean region. A vicid gum resin flows from the involucre.
Scotch thistle, either the cotton thistle, or the musk thistle, or the spear thistle; -- all used national emblems of Scotland.
Sow thistle, Sonchus oleraceus.
Spear thistle. Same as Bull thistle.
Star thistle, a species of Centaurea. See Centaurea.
Torch thistle, a candelabra-shaped plant of the genus Cereus. See Cereus.
Yellow thistle, Cincus horridulus.
Thistle bird (Zo["o]l.), the American goldfinch, or yellow-bird ( Spinus tristis); -- so called on account of its feeding on the seeds of thistles. See Illust. under Goldfinch.
Thistle butterfly (Zo["o]l.), a handsomely colored American butterfly ( Vanessa cardui) whose larva feeds upon thistles; -- called also painted lady.
Thistle cock (Zo["o]l.), the corn bunting ( Emberiza militaria). [Prov. Eng.]
Thistle crown, a gold coin of England of the reign of James I., worth four shillings.
Thistle finch (Zo["o]l.), the goldfinch; -- so called from its fondness for thistle seeds. [Prov. Eng.]
Thistle funnel, a funnel having a bulging body and flaring mouth.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
prickly herbaceous plant, Old English þistel, from Proto-Germanic *thistilaz (cognates: Old Saxon thistil, Old High German distil, German Distel, Old Norse þistell, Danish tidsel), of uncertain origin; perhaps from an extended form of PIE root *steig- "to prick, stick, pierce." Emblematic of Scotland since 15c.
Wiktionary
n. 1 Any of several perennial composite plants, especially of genera ''Cirsium'', ''Carduus'', ''Cynara'' or (taxlink Onopordum genus noshow=1), having prickly leaves and showy flower heads with prickly bracts. 2 This plant seen as the national emblem of Scotland. 3 The Order of the Thistle, or membership thereof.
WordNet
n. any of numerous plants of the family Compositae and especially of the genera Carduus and Cirsium and Onopordum having prickly-edged leaves
Wikipedia
Thistle was the unsuccessful Scottish challenger of the seventh America's Cup in 1887 against American defender Volunteer.
Thistle is a group of flowering plants.
Thistle may also refer to:
The Thistle is a high performance one-design racing dinghy, also used for day sailing, popular in the United States. The Thistle was designed by Gordon K. (Sandy) Douglass who later designed the Highlander and Flying Scot. (These names commemorate Douglass’s Scots heritage.) Starting in 1945, 4000 boats have now been built. Their construction originally used molded plywood. The builders started using Glass-reinforced polyester or "fibreglass" in the late 1950s. The current hull configuration uses a glass-reinforced polyester molded boat with wooden rails, centre board trunk, thwart, fore grating, and aft grating. The spars were once made from spruce, but are now of entirely extruded aluminum construction.
The Thistle Class Association,1 with fleets across the country, holds local, regional, and national regattas throughout the year. All Thistles are built to the same lines by authorized builders. Class rules limit innovations in rigging, restrict sail purchases, and prohibit electronic navigation gear. Old and new boats are evenly matched, with the owner of Thistle number 1 winning the national championship in 1990. Newer fibreglass hulls tend to "soften" over a period of 20 years, depending on use. "Softer" boats are still fast, but not competitive at the very highest level.
Thistle hulls are relatively light for their size; they have no decking or spray protection, which saves weight. The sail plan is large for a boat of this size, consisting of a marconi rig with a main, jib, and symmetrical spinnaker. The sail plan is larger for the boat’s weight than in many other dinghies, which makes Thistles perform extremely well in light wind. Their hulls have wide, rounded bottoms, allowing the boats to plane in winds as low as 10 knots. It is not uncommon to see thistles efficiently making their way, while other dinghys of similar design are becalmed.
Thistles are generally raced with a three-person crew: a skipper, a middle, and a forward person. The optimal total crew weight is generally 450 lb to 480 lb (US) depending on wind. The crew weight, however, is generally not the deciding factor in determining the outcome of the races. In fact, class rules do not limit crew weight. In all but the strongest winds, an experienced two-person crew can manage the boat. Hiking straps are permitted for either droop or straight leg hiking, but a trapeze is not. The class is generally family friendly, though experienced sailors will still be challenged at the higher levels of competition.
The Thistle is used as the baseline for the U.S. version of the Portsmouth yardstick system for handicapping small boats in mixed-class fleets.
The 2015 Thistle National Championship took place at the Fort Walton Yacht Club in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Skipper Mike Ingham with crew Dan Fein and Sarah Paisley won the event.
Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles often occur all over the plant – on surfaces such as those of the stem and flat parts of leaves. These are an adaptation that protects the plant against herbivorous animals, discouraging them from feeding on the plant. Typically, an involucre with a clasping shape of a cup or urn subtends each of a thistle's flowerheads.
The term thistle is sometimes taken to mean exactly those plants in the tribe Cynareae (synonym: Cardueae), especially the genera Carduus, Cirsium, and Onopordum. However, plants outside this tribe are sometimes called thistles, and if this is done thistles would form a polyphyletic group.
Thistle is the floral emblem of Scotland, as well as the emblem of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
Usage examples of "thistle".
Along the left side had once been a -track beside a ditch full of bulrushes and hemp agrimony, but this path was overgrown with thistles.
And only then, after childlike joy over the unharmed thistle had spread, after young Birken had heaped up earth over the bared roots and Lauremberg had run for water -- only after the company had thus recovered its innocence but before the usual chatter had time to start up did Simon Dach, beside whom Daniel Czepko had stationed himself, speak.
Indeed, the only advantage is to Broc, who will rid himself of the thistle in his shoe, and to the MacDonells who will gain the advantage of our strength and reputation.
The tender shoots are protected from being eaten by herbivorous animals in the same way as are the thistles and the holly, by the angles of the leaves having grown together so as to constitute prickles.
Meanwhile, the katydids went on caroling, and a covey of goldfinches fluttered into a patch of purple thistle, chattering companionably.
The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover, Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank, Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burrs, Losing both beauty and utility.
The ingredients are a closely guarded secret, but Master Li once told me they included cassia, ginseng, dry ginger, magnolia, broomrape, angelica, plumeless thistle, kikio root, Chinese pepper, japonica, aconite seeds and root, slough grass, and cockscomb.
The moment his back was turned the long black snake glided on again, and reached the other thistle tuft, which was within a couple of paces of his return beat.
Sebastian Reyne was so prickly and standoffish, he could give lessons to a thistle!
With a little oatmeal for food, and a little sulphur for friction, allaying cutaneous irritation with the one hand, and holding his Calvinistical creed in the other, Sawney ran away to his flinty hills, sung his psalm out of tune his own way, and listened to his sermon of two hours long, amid the rough and imposing melancholy of the tallest thistles.
A red dead-nettle, a mauve thistle, white and pink bramble flowers, a white strawberry, a little yellow tormentil, a broad yellow dandelion, narrow hawkweeds, and blue scabious, are all in flower in the lane.
Had some rascally schelm not stabbed my horse I should have swept your head off as a boy cuts thistles mit a stick.
Then again another acute and startling outbreak, a swift upgrowth of monstrous weedy thickets, a drifting dissemination about the world of inhumanly growing thistles, of cockroaches men fought with shot guns, or a plague of mighty flies.
Exceptions included the Scotch or Cotton thistle, a biennial growing up to five feet with striking, sculptured leaves, covered with white cob webby hairs and .
Ernie is a thistle whiffler and he whiffles thistles with a thistle whiffler.