THISTLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does thistle mean? 

• THISTLE (noun)
  The noun THISTLE has 1 sense:

1. any of numerous plants of the family Compositae and especially of the genera Carduus and Cirsium and Onopordum having prickly-edged leaves

  Familiarity information: THISTLE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• THISTLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of numerous plants of the family Compositae and especially of the genera Carduus and Cirsium and Onopordum having prickly-edged leaves

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("thistle" is a kind of...):

weed (any plant that crowds out cultivated plants)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "thistle"):

Carduus crispus; welted thistle (European biennial introduced in North America having flower heads in crowded clusters at ends of branches)

Carduus nutans; musk thistle; nodding thistle (Eurasian perennial naturalized in eastern North America having very spiny white cottony foliage and nodding musky crimson flower heads; valuable source of nectar)

carline thistle (a thistle of the genus Carlina)

plume thistle; plumed thistle (any of numerous biennial to perennial herbs with handsome purple or yellow or occasionally white flower heads)

Cirsium discolor; field thistle (stout North American thistle with purplish-pink flower heads)

Cirsium helenioides; Cirsium heterophylum; melancholy thistle (perennial stoloniferous thistle of northern Europe with lanceolate basal leaves and usually solitary heads of reddish-purple flowers)

blessed thistle; Cnicus benedictus; sweet sultan (annual of Mediterranean to Portugal having hairy stems and minutely spiny-toothed leaves and large heads of yellow flowers)

cotton thistle; Onopordon acanthium; Onopordum acanthium; Scotch thistle; woolly thistle (biennial Eurasian white hairy thistle having pale purple flowers; naturalized in North America)

golden thistle (any of several spiny Mediterranean herbs of the genus Scolymus having yellow flower heads)

Holonyms ("thistle" is a member of...):

aster family; Asteraceae; Compositae; family Asteraceae; family Compositae (plants with heads composed of many florets: aster; daisy; dandelion; goldenrod; marigold; lettuces; ragweed; sunflower; thistle; zinnia)

 Context examples 

The active extract of milk thistle seeds is called silymarin.

(Milk thistle, NCI Dictionary)

A substance found in certain plants, including blessed thistle.

(Cnicin, NCI Dictionary)

Blessed thistle may have anti-inflammatory and anticancer effects.

(Blessed thistle, NCI Dictionary)

I am not fond of nettles or thistles, or heath blossoms.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Milk thistle's active chemical component is silymarin, which is a combination of flavonoids such as silibinin, dehydrosilibinin, silychristin and silydianin.

(Milk thistle, NCI Thesaurus)

Holy thistle may have anti-inflammatory and anticancer effects.

(Holy thistle, NCI Dictionary)

Therefore, ingredients in indole-3-carbinol/calcium/Schizandra/vitamin D3/milk thistle/stinging nettle/lignan-based nutritional capsule may alter estrogen balance and may protect against mammary carcinogenesis.

(Indole-3-Carbinol/Calcium/Schizandra/Vitamin D3/Milk Thistle/Stinging Nettle/Lignan-Based Nutritional Capsule, NCI Thesaurus)

Also called blessed thistle, holy thistle, spotted thistle, and St. Benedict's thistle.

(Cardin, NCI Dictionary)

From time to time as they advanced they saw strange lean figures scraping and scratching amid the weeds and thistles, who, on sight of the band of horsemen, threw up their arms and dived in among the brushwood, as shy and as swift as wild animals.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Silybin, also known as silibinin, is a mixture of two stereoisomers, denoted silybin A and silybin B, and is the major active constituent of silymarin, a mixture of flavonolignans extracted from blessed milk thistle (Silybum marianum).

(Phosphatidylcholine-Bound Silybin, NCI Thesaurus)