tassel

plural tassels · alternative archaic tossel

1. A ball-shaped bunch of plaited or otherwise entangled threads from which at one end protrudes a cord on which the ball is hung, and which may have loose, dangling threads at the other end (often used as decoration along the bottom of garments, curtains or other hangings).

   The Giant's boots were of pink leather and had tassels on them and his hat was decorated with an enormous pink ostrich feather, carefully curled.

   1912, L. Frank Baum, The Patchwork Girl of Oz

2. biologyThe panicle on a male plant of maize, which consists of loose threads with anthers on them.

   1 more example

   The plant world is very busy and helpful when it seems to be playing. The tall, plumy tassels at the tops of corn stalks, swing much as you do under the maple tree. But those tassels are so loaded with pollen that you can often see a brown dust hovering over a corn field. As the wind blows the tassels, the pollen is shaken down in clouds.

   1915, Eleanor Stackhouse Atkinson, The How and Why Library, Life - Plants - Section IX

3. The loose hairs at the end of a braid.
4. A narrow silk ribbon, or similar, sewn to a book to be put between the pages.
5. architectureA piece of board that is laid upon a wall as a sort of plate, to give a level surface to the ends of floor timbers.
6. A kind of bur used in dressing cloth; a teasel.
7. A thin plate of gold on the back of a bishop's gloves.

present singular third person tassels · US participle present tasseling · UK participle present tasselling · US participle past tasseled · US past tasseled · UK participle past tasselled · UK past tasselled · alternative archaic tossel

1. transitiveTo adorn with tassels.

   […] gauzes of silver mist; Loop’d up with cords of twisted wreathed light, And tassell’d round with weeping meteors!

   1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, act V, scene V, verses 37-39

   Synonyms: betassel

2. intransitivebiologyTo put forth a tassel or flower.

   Maize is a crop that tassels.

plural tassels · alternative archaic tossel

1. alternativeAlternative form of tassell.