Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Teasel

Tea′sel (tē′z'l; 277), n. [OE. tesel, AS. tǣsel, tǣsl, the fuller's herb. See Tease.] [Written also tassel, tazel, teasle, teazel, and teazle.] 1. (Bot.) A plant of the genus Dipsacus, of which one species (D. fullonum) bears a large flower head covered with stiff, prickly, hooked bracts. This flower head, when dried, is used for raising a nap on woolen cloth.

☞ Small teasel is Dipsacus pilosus, wild teasel is D. sylvestris.

2. A bur of this plant.

3. Any contrivance intended as a substitute for teasels in dressing cloth.

Teasel frame, a frame or set of iron bars in which teasel heads are fixed for raising the nap on woolen cloth.

Tea′sel, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Teaseled or Teaselled; p. pr. & vb. n. Teaseling or Teaselling.] To subject, as woolen cloth, to the action of teasels, or any substitute for them which has an effect to raise a nap.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.