[f. THISTLE sb. + DOWN sb.2] The down or pappus which crowns the ‘seeds’ or achenes of the thistle, and by means of which they are carried along by the wind: either collectively, or that of a single ‘seed.’
1561. [see c].
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 112/1. Pappus, the downe of flowers which the wind bloweth about: as thistle downe.
1591. Spenser, M. Hubberd, 634. As a thistle-downe in th’ ayre doth flie.
1723. Mandeville, Fab. Bees, 277. If it were a hard Winter, they mingled some Thistle down with their Rushes to keep them warm.
1879. Jefferies, Wild Life in S. Co., 206. Thistledown is sometimes gathered to fill pillow-cases.
1894. Miss F. Willard, in Chicago Advance, 4 Oct. One sees a thistledown borne on the breeze.
b. As a type of lightness, flimsiness, or instability; hence fig.
1868. W. Cory, Lett. & Jrnls. (1897), 251. The thistle-down of sentiment hung about me all the time.
1904. R. Hichens, Gard. Allah, x. Forgive my malice…. It was really a thing of thistledown.
1908. Outlook, 27 Nov., 880/1. That is not to say that Christianity is to be a thistledown to be blown hither and thither at the breath of every fad and whim.
c. attrib. Of or like thistle-down (lit. and fig.).
1561. Will M. Langrygge (Somerset Ho.). Thesseldowne bed.
1889. John Bull, 2 March, 149/3. The train was of thistle-down brocade, that being the design brocaded, or rather embossed, upon the snowy surface of the silk.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 12 Feb., 2/1. The thistle-down character of Miss Hart.
