Definition of "thistledown" [thistledown]

• The silky down attached to the seedlike fruit of a thistle; pappus. (noun)

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.

• "A thing as important as thistledown is as unimportantly dismissed."
• "A thin mist floated like thistledown from the marshes, which were so distant that they were visible only as a pinkish edge to the horizon."
• "We also believed that there's a secret name which, if you call the thistledown by, will make it fly into your hand."