thistledown

English

Etymology

From thistle +‎ down.

Noun

thistledown (usually uncountable, plural thistledowns)

  1. The soft, feathery pappus attached to the seeds of a thistle.
    • 1850, Mary Cowden Clarke, The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines: A Series of Fifteen Tales:
      Yet, let me not reproach myself, since the blame is due to her lightness of heart, her fickle fancy—no stabler than gossamer or thistledown—which the first wanton breath wafts elsewhere.

Translations

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