cotton

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   fibrous substance

2. 2

   plant source

   • K'a-shih has the most extensive cotton-growing area which amounted to 950 000 mou (6.3 million ares) in 1965.
3. 3

   manufactured product of such substance

4. ›+ 10 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      Made of cotton.

   2. 5

      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.
   3. 6

      To make or become cotton-like

      • 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.
   4. 7

      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.
   5. 8

      To rub or burnish with cotton.

      • 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.
   6. 9

      To get on with someone or something

      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.
   7. 10

      A liking.

   8. 11

      The name of several settlements around the world

   9. 12

      A habitational surname from Old English.

   10. 13

       A surname from Hebrew.

The neighborhood