Tassel

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtæsÉ™l/
• Rhymes: -æsÉ™l

Origin

From Old French tassel.

Full definition of tassel

Noun

1. A ball-shaped bunch of plaited or otherwise entangled threads from which at one end protrudes a cord on which the tassel is hung, and which may have loose, dangling threads at the other end. Tassels are normally decorative elements, and as such one often finds them attached, usually along the bottom hem, to garments, curtains or other hangings.
2. The male inflorescence of maize, which consists of loose threads with anthers on them.
3. The loose hairs at the end of a braid.
4. A narrow silk ribbon, or similar, sewed to a book to be put between the pages.
5. (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.
6. A kind of bur used in dressing cloth; a teasel.

Related terms

• sword knot

Verb

1. To adorn with tassels.
• 1819, , Otho the Great, Act V, Scene V, verses 37-39… gauzes of silver mist;Loop’d up with cords of twisted wreathed light,And tassell’d round with weeping meteors!
2. To put forth a tassel or flower.Maize is a crop that tassels.

Anagrams

• salets, slates, stales, steals, teslas