cotton
cottons; cottoned; cottoning
Cotton is a plant that grows the soft, fluffy fibers that are used to make the fabric also known as cotton. Cotton grows best in very warm climates.
Cotton is a hugely important fiber, since it's used to make all kinds of clothing, bedding, and other things we use regularly. Your t-shirt, jeans, underwear, and socks are probably all made, at least in part, from cotton, and so is your bath towel, pillow case, and the curtains on your windows. If you use cotton as a verb, it's an informal way to say "take a liking to." This meaning has a Welsh root, cytuno, "agree."
Definitions of cotton
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erect bushy mallow plant or small tree bearing bolls containing seeds with many long hairy fibers
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synonyms:
cotton plant
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types:
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Gossypium arboreum, tree cotton
East Indian shrub cultivated especially for ornament for its pale yellow to deep purple blossoms
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Gossypium barbadense, sea island cotton, tree cotton
small bushy tree grown on islands of the Caribbean and off the Atlantic coast of the southern United States; yields cotton with unusually long silky fibers
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Gossypium herbaceum, Levant cotton
Old World annual having heart-shaped leaves and large seeds with short greyish lint removed with difficulty; considered an ancestor of modern short-staple cottons
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Gossypium hirsutum, upland cotton
native tropical American plant now cultivated in the United States yielding short-staple cotton
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Gossypium peruvianum, Peruvian cotton
cotton with long rough hairy fibers
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Egyptian cotton
fine somewhat brownish long-staple cotton grown in Egypt; believed to be derived from sea island cotton or by hybridization with Peruvian cotton
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Arizona wild cotton, Gossypium thurberi, wild cotton
shrub of southern Arizona and Mexico
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soft silky fibers from cotton plants in their raw state
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synonyms:
cotton fiber, cotton wool
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types:
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absorbent cotton
cotton made absorbent by removal of the natural wax
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long-staple cotton
cotton with relatively long fibers
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short-staple cotton
cotton with relatively short fibers
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type of:
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plant fiber, plant fibre
fiber derived from plants
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absorbent cotton
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fabric woven from cotton fibers
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types:
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gauze, gauze bandage
(medicine) bleached cotton cloth of plain weave used for bandages and dressings
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petrolatum gauze
gauze saturated with petrolatum
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gauze, gauze bandage
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thread made of cotton fibers
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types:
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lisle, lisle thread
a strong tightly twisted cotton thread (usually made of long-staple cotton)
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lisle, lisle thread
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take a liking to“cotton to something”
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type of:
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like
find enjoyable or agreeable
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like
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘cotton'.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
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