[f. prec. sb.] trans. To raise a smooth nap on (cloth) with or as with teasels; to tease. Also transf. Hence Teaseling (teasling) vbl. sb. (also attrib.).
[1464. Act 4 Edw. IV., c. 1. Qe chescun fullour … en sa arte & occupacion de fuller & scalpier ou tezeiler de drap excercise & use teizels & nulls cardes.] Transl. (1543). That euery fuller … in his crafte & occupacyon of fullynge rowynge or taseylynge of clothe, shall exercise tasels and no cardes.
1603. Florio, Montaigne (1634), 393. He … led him in a fullers or cloth-workers shoppe, where with Cardes and Teazels … he made him to be carded, scraped, and teazled so long, untill he died of it.
1607. Markham, Caval., VI. (1617), 55. Dride sinewes of an Oxe, well tasled and mixt with well tempered glewe.
1733. P. Lindsay, Interest Scot., 109. We understand the picking of Cloth … but we are not so adroit at the tasselling it.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 192. The object … is to raise up the loose fibres of the woollen yarn into a nap … by scratching it either with thistle-heads called teasels, or with teasling-cards or brushes, made of wires. Ibid., 193. Moisture also softens their points and impairs their teasling powers.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., Teaseling-machine,… in which woolen cloth is teaseled to raise a nap upon it.
† b. transf. ? To dress or improve the surface of (land). Cf. TEASEL sb. 4. Obs. rare.
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, I. x. 28. They teasil their perring wild sand with stall dung.
