tassel

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“
At all events the tassel was a warning, a terror, and a hope.

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Definitions (26)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun 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.
  2. noun Something that resembles such an ornament, especially the pollen-bearing inflorescence of a corn plant.
  3. transitive verb To fringe or decorate with tassels.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (16)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (5)

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Examples (50)

  • Truthfully, I lucked out with the hardware - I found the chain and the rings at Windsor Button in Boston, and the chain on the tassel is a tiny piece left over from my Chanel jacket.
  • The tassel is attached to the chain with looped wire which runs through the center of the bead and tassel neck to a stop bead hidden in the skirt.
  • Stalk and blade and tassel, and the intertwining small, pale-blue morning-glory, all were down. —  The Long Roll
  • How unlucky He stood vexedly twitching at his cap-tassel, which fell over by his whisker, and continued: "Well, I am very sorry. —  The Confidence-Man
  • One is an admirable imitation of Indian corn in tassel, the silky fibres as fine and flexile as can be imagined; another is a group of ostrich plumes, so downy that a zephyr waves it. —  The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852
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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French, fastening, clasp, from Vulgar Latin *tassellus, blend of Latin tessella, small die; see tessellate, taxillus, diminutive of tālus, knucklebone, ankle.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Also dial. tossel; from Middle English tassel, irreg. tarcel, = Middle Low German tassel, from Old French tassel, a fastening, clasp, French tasseau, a bracket, ledge (Middle Latin tassellus), = Italian tassello, a collar of a cloak, a square, from Latin taxillus, a small die, diminutive of tālus, a knuckle-bone, a die made of the knuckle-bone of an animal.
  2. from Middle English tassellen; from tassel, n.
 

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/ˈtæsl/
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