Also 4 tassil, 5 tacel, 8 tassel. [f. TASSEL sb.1]
1. trans. To furnish or adorn with or as with a tassel or tassels.
In pa. pple. in Her. indicating that the tassel or tassels are of a tincture different from that of the rest of the bearing.
a. 1366[?]. Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 1079. A robe … With orfrays leyd was everydel,… And with a bend of gold tasseled. Ibid. (c. 1386), Miller’s T., 65. By hir girdel heeng a purs of lether Tasseled with grene and perled with latoun.
14[?]. Sir Beues (MS. N.), 3777 + 7. Tacellid wiþ rosys off syluyr bryȝt.
1572. Bossewell, Armorie, II. 92. He beareth Argente, a pursse gules, doble tasseled d’azure.
1724. Lond. Gaz., No. 6290/2. A Velvet … Cushion edged and tasselled with Gold.
1894. Blackw. Mag., Sept., 317/2. The blond sallow tasselled itself with gold.
2. intr. Of maize and sugar-cane: To form ‘tassels,’ to flower, bloom. Chiefly U.S.
1785. Washington, Writ. (1891), XII. 227. It [Indian corn] should be kept clean and well worked … till it shoots and tassels at least.
1875. H. M. Whitney, Hawaiian Guide-bk., 42. The cane does not tassel here.
1881. Nicholson, Fr. Sword to Share, xxii. 153. Cane grew … almost everywhere … at altitudes up to 3,000 feet above sea-level, at half that height it ceased to Blossom or tassel.
Hence Tasselling, tasseling vbl. sb. (also concr. work composed of tassels) and ppl. a.
1829. Anniversary, Beatrice, 232. She couches in the pleached bower Which tasselling honeysuckles deck.
1881. Nicholson, Fr. Sword to Share, xxix. 222. In November the cane tops will throw out a feathery, dove-coloured blossom, called tasselling.
1902. Westm. Gaz., 12 July, 7/3. The sides of the stairs … are … finished off with gold tasselling.
