a. [f. THISTLE sb. + -Y.]
1. Of the nature of or resembling a thistle; spiny, prickly; consisting of or constituted by thistles. (In 1611, made of ‘thistles,’ i.e., teasel-heads.)
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. ii. IV. Columnes, 625. That shell [of the chestnut] incas’t in a thick thistly fell.
1611. Cotgr., Applaneur de draps, the Cloathworker; who with his thistly cards doth smooth, and stroake down clothes.
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 768. The land … Exults to see its thistly curse repealed.
1845. G. Struthers, in Ess. Chr. Union, vii. (1851), 416. The plant of schism has put forth its thistly spines wherever it has been carried.
2. Full of, abounding or overgrown with thistles.
1710. Tusser Redivivus, in T.’s Husb. (1878), 129, note. Where the Wheat is thistly.
1727–46. Thomson, Summer, 1658. Wide o’er the thistly lawn, as swells the breeze, A whitening shower of vegetable down Amusive floats.
1900. Hudson, Nat. in Downland, 41. Thistly and weedy wastelands.
3. fig. (from 1 and 2).
1784. Cowper, Task, IV. 335. A world, so thorny,… where none Finds happiness … Without some thistly sorrow at it’s side.
1866. Howells, Venet. Life, 342. Converted into a fortress … all thistly with bayonets.
1889. Harper’s Mag., March, 661/1. Wandering into thistly byways of dissent.
