Definition of "tassel" [tas•sel]

• A bunch of loose threads or cords bound at one end and hanging free at the other, used as an ornament on curtains or clothing, for example. (noun)
• Something that resembles such an ornament, especially the pollen-bearing inflorescence of a corn plant. (noun)
• To fringe or decorate with tassels. (verb-transitive)
• To put forth a tassellike inflorescence. Used especially of corn. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Is it sad that I want a curtain tassel for a earring now?"
• "(For those of you who don't know me, I actually have a nice chapeau [ "hat" in French] with a tassel from the University of Michigan School of Social Work where I trained to be a therapist in grad school.)"
• "Tom, who stood by her, idly spinning the curtain tassel, followed the familiar figure with his eye, and seeing how gray the hair had grown, how careworn the florid face, and how like a weary old man his once strong, handsome father walked, he was smitten by a new pang of self-reproach, and with his usual impetuosity set about repairing the omission as soon as he discovered it."