cotton

noun

1. 1

   A fibrous substance: A soft, fibrous, usually white substance consisting of fine hairs, especially the substance around the seeds of a plant of genus Gossypium.

2. 2

   A fibrous substance: Any similar soft, fibrous, white substance of fine hairs, of any origin.

3. 3

   A plant source: A plant of genus Gossypium, used as a source of such fiber.

   K'a-shih has the most extensive cotton-growing area which amounted to 950 000 mou (6.3 million ares) in 1965.

4. 4

   A plant source: Any plant that encases its seed in a thin fiber that is harvested and used as a fabric or cloth.

5. 5

   A manufactured product of such a substance: Textiles made from the fiber harvested from a cotton plant, especially Gossypium.

   Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety. She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.

6. 6

   A manufactured product of such a substance: An item of clothing made from such textiles.

   The little girls appeared, looking fresh and cool in pretty pink cottons, and we two elder ones seized the opportunity of making a more elaborate toilette than usual.

   The old man wore the simplest cottons, faded from long use and countless washings.

7. 7

   A manufactured product of such a substance: A small piece of cotton used as a filter when drawing up a drug into a syringe.

   Do not re-use needles; use fresh cottons each time.

8. 8

   A manufactured product of such a substance: Thread of such fiber.

9. 9

   archaicA manufactured product of such a substance: A wick of a candle.

adjective

1. 1

   Made of cotton.

verb

1. 1

   To provide with cotton.

   Goddamned fools had cottoned the land, and just worked it to death, destroying the topsoil, so it blew away, and then, when the rains came, gullied it, so that it wasn't worth a damn for anything.

   Eyes closed, ears cottoned, the mind produces its own interior messages.

2. 2

   To provide with cotton. To supply with a cotton wick.

   Each machine has on average 200 moulds, each mould contains 18 bobbins, and each bobbin, when first cottoned, 60 yards of wick, so that supposing all the frames of our seven machines to be fresh cottoned at the same time, we should have above 800 miles of wick in work.

   The method of using the machine is as follows: — After having made the connection between the hot and cold water pipes and the machine at K, and having connected the outlet pipe with a drain, the machine is ready for cottoning.

3. 3

   To provide with cotton. To fill with a wad of cotton.

   First comes bottling, which is done both by machine and by hand. This is followed by cottoning and capping.

   Although cottoning is performed by hand, the hand-capping operation is assisted by a mechanical friction wheel, driven through a flexible cable.

   Features of the CM/CCI (Continuous Motion, Close-Coupled Integrated) packaging line segment include control of containers from the bottle feeder through the filling/ cottoning operations and space savings in packaging line lengths.

4. 4

   To provide with cotton. To wrap with a protective layer of cotton fabric.

   When a tree is to be cottoned the ends from the cops are brought together and tied in a rough knot, which is hitched to a twig. Then, with the tube held upright, the operator walks round the tree as many times as may be necessary to cover it with lines of cotton, raising the metal tube about three feet after each round.

   I went round and quietly cottoned all the nine holes, and next moring I found all the cottons intact.

   I planted out over 600 polyanthus plants, and almost without exception the sparrows had the new buds off — after I had both cottoned and sprayed with Jeyes. They also destroyed two rows of brussels sprouts seedlings — again after cottoning and spraying.

   The National Fruit Trials at Brogdale will this year be working in conjunction with Worplesden on cottoning cherry orchards as a method of reducing losses, although it can never entirely prevent damage.

5. 5

   To provide with cotton. To cover walls with fabric.

   The rooms downstairs were cottoned, the doors re-hung, and a counter put in the record office.

   Robinson, W., Whitehorse: cottoning and papering 10 rooms, hall and staircase, at sergeant's mess, $206;

   Mr. Taylor said he reckoned the cost of cottoning at twelve and one-half cents per yard.

6. 6

   To provide with cotton. To cover with cotton bolls over a layer of tar (analogous to tar and feather )

   Tar and cotton him," said a student from the college, more facetiously, perhaps, more mercifully inclined. " Think, fellows, what a pretty bird he will be, with cotton for feathers ; — so downy."

   Tarring and feathering in the Northern States of America, or tarring and cottoning in the South (the last a freak frequently played with Abolitionists prior to the Great Civil War), could have been as nothing, looked upon as a frolic, compared with the racy humours of the Golden House.

7. 7

   To make or become cottonlike. To raise a nap, providing with a soft, cottony texture.

   The finishing operations consisted of shearing the nap from the cloth, and frizzing, or cottoning, the surface, by pressing with hot irons.

   When the cloth is thus shorn on one side, it is for the most part cottoned on the other side, which they call the wrong side ; but frizes are cottoned on the " right side", for cottoning makes them such.

   The final finishing processes—cottoning and rowing, or raising the nap with teasels and shearing it smooth again—were performed after the Drapers had carried the cloth to Shrewsbury.

   Webs made from them had to be frizzed or cottoned.

8. 8

   To make or become cottonlike. To develop a porous, cottony texture.

   At this moment he saw the plate cottoning, as he expressed it, to his young friend, Charles Freeland, who sat in the pew at his right. He watched to see what the young merchant would give ; and to his amazement, he saw the young man put in a fifty dollar note!

   Used at medium to thin consistency to avoid stringing or cottoning and to assure proper spreading characteristics.

   However, this variety exhibited cottoning (breaking down of the central portion of the root) starting on the 14th up to the 20th day of storage.

9. 9

   To make or become cottonlike. To give the appearance of being dotted with cotton balls.

   A fair piece ahead, in answering signal cottoned the sky in rhythmic puffs.

   Choppy waves cottoned the bay.

   And he quickly changed the subject as the first of the afternoon clouds cottoned the sky and laid shadows across Marlin Hardwick's rustling, winding, scuttling and bird-calling yard.

10. 10

    To make or become cottonlike. To enshroud with a layer of whiteness.

    Fog cottoned the steep, wooded slopes on each side of the lake, and the air was chill and penetrating.

    There was no evidence by Thursday of the snowfall that had thickly cottoned the Taunton area; the town and state plows had scraped the roads clean, and the only sight of snow remaining lay in the drifts and patches on the sheltered, wooded slopes northward.

    Fog cottoned the roads under a sky like rusted tin.

    A mist cottoned the hills inland.

11. 11

    To protect from harsh stimuli, coddle, or muffle.

    Jeanne's house, like Usher's, is a void of great silence and immobility and the "somnambulistic gardens" surrounding her house like Usher's tarn "cottoned the sound from the world."

    The violins were muted, the hands were gloved, carpets were unrolled forever under the feet, and the gardens cottoned the sound from the world.

    In the case of the whippingboys, however, the closeness of the relationship was often given a somewhat negative interpretation by the teachers — the parents were over-anxious, 'cottoned' the boy, were overprotective.

    Indeed, pragmatism and technicism cottoned the American soul from some of the worst pains of an unmysterious world, although they would later be poor guardians against its encroachment.

12. 12

    To rub or burnish with cotton.

    To oppress one's own workmen, and provide for the workmen of a neighbor — to skin those in charge of one's own interests while cottoning and oiling the residuary product of another's skinnery — that is not very good benevolence, nor very good sense, but it serves in place of both.

    It was inclined to be scummy in developing, and the consequent vigorous 'cottoning' or rubbing with a swab of absorbent cotton while in the developing sink, which was necessary to open it up, often caused injury to the image.

    The solution has been to unplug the dots — open up the shadow areas — by re-etching, cottoning, and other handwork.

verb

1. 1

   To get on with someone or something; to have a good relationship with someone.

   What meanes this? doth he dote so much of this strange harlot indeed? now I perceiue how this geare cottens.

   I want to tell you the Dukes, both mother and son, are cottoning to her fast enough.

   The conference—Mr. Allen’s first gathering, and, depending on the economic outlook, maybe his last—brought together entrepreneurs, techies, writers and even some middle managers who’ve cottoned on to his ideas.

noun

1. 1

   A liking.

Forms

plural

cottons

past tense

cottoned

past participle

cottoned

present participle

cottoning

third person singular

cottons