From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthistlethis‧tle /ˈθɪsəl/ noun [countable, uncountable] HBPa wild plant which has leaves with sharp points and purple or white furry flowers
Examples from the Corpus
thistle• The dew-drop on a bullock's pizzle, thick glycerine, a limpid gum, swaying on the great dead thistle.• For some reason every species is blue-violet: lupine, blue-eyed grass, thistle, gentian.• Two thousand years ago, the biblical farmer was tormented by tares and Virgil was denouncing what he called the lazy thistle.• He went cautiously out into the field, squatted down against a clump of thistles and began to smell the wind.• A purple thistle sewn to the pocket of a school blazer.• Why is the lovely silver Royal Victorian Order insignia decorated with a rose, thistle, shamrock - and a sunflower?• New this Christmas are Whisky Thistle Truffles, each moulded into a thistle shape and filled with real whisky truffle centres.• They guided cars to the curving verges of grass, once mown close, now high and grown with thistles.Origin thistle Old English thistel 