What is fig.: Resembling a thistle or thistles; sharp; pricking. In such a world, so thorny, and where none Finds happiness unblighted, or, if found, Without some thistly sorrow at its side. Cowper called?

thistly — Fig.: Resembling a thistle or thistles; sharp; pricking. In such a world, so thorny, and where none Finds happiness unblighted, or, if found, Without some thistly sorrow at its side. Cowper. (Webster's 1913.)