teasel

• teazle, teasle, teazel

From Middle English tesel, tasil, tasel, tosel, from Old English tǣsel, tǣsl, from Proto-Germanic *taisilō, *taislō (“thistle”), from Proto-Indo-European *dāy- (“to separate, divide”). Cognate with Scots tasil, tassill (“teasel”), German Zeisel (“thistle, teasel”). Related to tease.

• Rhymes: -iːzəl

teasel (plural teasels)

1. Any of several plants of the genus Dipsacus.
2. The dried flower head of the fuller's teasel, Dipsacus fullonum, used for teasing or carding cloth.
3. Any contrivance intended as a substitute for teasels in dressing cloth.

teasel (third-person singular simple present teasels, present participle teaselling or teaseling, simple past and past participle teaselled or teaseled)

1. (archaic) To raise the nap on cloth; to tease; to card.

• elates, steale, stelae, stelæ, teasle