cotton : Idioms & Phrases

• noun cotton made absorbent by removal of the natural wax
  

WordNet

• noun shrub of southern Arizona and Mexico
  Gossypium thurberi; Arizona wild cotton.
  

WordNet

• noun having densely tufted white cottony or downlike glumes
  Eriophorum angustifolium.
  

WordNet

• noun a fungus disease of cranberries
  

WordNet

• noun larva of a noctuid moth; highly destructive to especially corn and cotton and tomato crops
  corn earworm; tobacco budworm; tomato fruitworm; Heliothis zia; vetchworm.
  

WordNet

• noun the solid matter remaining after oil has been pressed from cottonseeds
  cottonseed cake.
  

WordNet

• . See Cambric, n., 2.

Webster 1913

• noun a candy made by spinning sugar that has been boiled to a high temperature
  spun sugar; candyfloss.
  

WordNet

• noun soft silky fibers from cotton plants in their raw state
  cotton fiber; cotton.
  

WordNet

• noun a stout cotton fabric with nap on only one side
  Canton flannel.
  

WordNet

• the manufactures' name for a heavy cotton fabric, twilled, and with a long plush nap. In England it is called swan's-down cotton, or Canton flannel.

Webster 1913

• noun a machine that separates the seeds from raw cotton fibers
  gin.
  

WordNet

• a machine to separate the seeds from cotton, invented by Eli Whitney.

Webster 1913

• noun any sedge of the genus Eriophorum; north temperate bog plants with tufted spikes
  cotton grass.
  

WordNet

• (Bot.), a genus of plants (Eriphorum) of the Sedge family, having delicate capillary bristles surrounding the fruit (seedlike achenia), which elongate at maturity and resemble tufts of cotton.

Webster 1913

• noun a textile mill for making cotton textiles
  

WordNet

• noun large dark mouse of southeastern United States
  Peromyscus gossypinus.
  

WordNet

• (Zool.), a field mouse (Hesperomys gossypinus), injurious to cotton crops.

Webster 1913

• verb understand, usually after some initial difficulty
  get it; catch on; latch on; tumble; get wise; get onto; twig.
  
  • She didn't know what her classmates were plotting but finally caught on

WordNet

• noun erect bushy mallow plant or small tree bearing bolls containing seeds with many long hairy fibers
  cotton.
  

WordNet

• (Bot.), a plant of the genus Gossypium, of several species, all growing in warm climates, and bearing the cotton of commerce. The common species, originally Asiatic, is G. herbaceum.

Webster 1913

• a building and machinery in which cotton bales are compressed into smaller bulk for shipment; a press for baling cotton.

Webster 1913

• noun destructive long-haired burrowing rat of southern North America and Central America
  Sigmodon hispidus.
  

WordNet

• noun Chinese shrub or small tree having white or pink flowers becoming deep red at night; widely cultivated; naturalized in southeastern United States
  Confederate rose mallow; Confederate rose; Hibiscus mutabilis.
  
• noun any plant of the genus Filago having capitate clusters of small woolly flower heads
  cudweed; filago.
  

WordNet

• (Bot.), a genus of composite herbs (Filago), covered with a white substance resembling cotton.

Webster 1913

• noun any sedge of the genus Eriophorum; north temperate bog plants with tufted spikes
  cotton grass.
  

WordNet

• (Zoöl.), a species of bark louse (Pulvinaria innumerabilis), which does great damage to the cotton plant.

Webster 1913

• . Same as Cotton plant.

Webster 1913

• noun a true bug: bug that damages and stains the lint of developing cotton
  

WordNet

• (Zoöl.), a species of hemipterous insect (Dysdercus suturellus), which seriously damages growing cotton by staining it; called also redbug.

Webster 1913

• noun feeds primarily on cotton
  

WordNet

• noun biennial Eurasian white hairy thistle having pale purple flowers; naturalized in North America
  woolly thistle; Scotch thistle; Onopordon acanthium; Onopordum acanthium.
  

WordNet

• (Bot.), the Scotch thistle. See under Thistle.

Webster 1913

• verb ingratiate oneself to; often with insincere behavior
  play up; sidle up; cozy up; shine up; suck up.
  
  • She is playing up to the chairman

WordNet

• velvet in which the warp and woof are both of cotton, and the pile is of silk; also, velvet made wholly of cotton.

Webster 1913

• the refuse of cotton mills.

Webster 1913

• noun soft silky fibers from cotton plants in their raw state
  cotton fiber; cotton.
  

WordNet

• cotton in its raw or woolly state.

Webster 1913

• (Zool.), a lepidopterous insect (Aletia argillacea), which in the larval state does great damage to the cotton plant by eating the leaves. It also feeds on corn, etc., and hence is often called corn worm, and Southern army worm.

Webster 1913

• noun a shrub of salt marshes of eastern and south central North America and West Indies; fruit is surrounded with white plumelike hairy tufts
  groundsel bush; consumption weed; groundsel tree; Baccharis halimifolia.
  

WordNet

• noun fine somewhat brownish long-staple cotton grown in Egypt; believed to be derived from sea island cotton or by hybridization with Peruvian cotton
  

WordNet

• the fiber of flax, reduced by steeping in bicarbinate of soda and acidulated liquids, and prepared for bleaching and spinning like cotton. Knight.

Webster 1913

• (Chem.), a general name for a series of explosive nitric ethers of cellulose, obtained by steeping cotton in nitric and sulphuric acids. Although there are formed substances containing nitric acid radicals, yet the results exactly resemble ordinary cotton in appearance. It burns without ash, with explosion if confined, but quietly and harmlessly if free and open, and in small quantity. Specifically, the lower nitrates of cellulose which are insoluble in ether and alcohol in distinction from the highest (pyroxylin) which is soluble. See Pyroxylin, and cf. Xyloidin. The gun cottons are used for blasting and somewhat in gunnery: for making celluloid when compounded with camphor; and the soluble variety (pyroxylin) for making collodion. See Celluloid, and Collodion. Gun cotton is frequenty but improperly called nitrocellulose. It is not a nitro compound, but an ethereal salt of nitric acid.

Webster 1913

• noun branching aromatic Mediterranean shrub with woolly stems and leaves and yellow flowers
  Santolina chamaecyparissus.
  

WordNet

• (Bot.), a low, twiggy, aromatic shrub (Santolina Chamæcyparissus) of the Mediterranean region, formerly used as a vermifuge, etc., and still used to keep moths from wardrobes. Also called ground cypress.

Webster 1913

• noun 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
  Gossypium herbaceum.
  

WordNet

• noun cotton with relatively long fibers
  

WordNet

• . See Mineral wool (below).

Webster 1913

• noun a fiber from the bast of New Zealand ribbon trees that resembles cotton fiber
  

WordNet

• noun cotton with long rough hairy fibers
  Gossypium peruvianum.
  

WordNet

• noun a plant fiber from the red silk-cotton tree of eastern India; inferior to kapok
  

WordNet

• noun East Indian silk cotton tree yielding fibers inferior to kapok
  Bombax malabarica; simal; Bombax ceiba.
  

WordNet

• noun 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
  sea island cotton; Gossypium barbadense.
  

WordNet

• noun cotton with relatively short fibers
  

WordNet

• noun a plant fiber from the kapok tree; used for stuffing and insulation
  kapok; vegetable silk.
  

WordNet

• a cottony substance enveloping the seeds of the silk-cotton tree.

Webster 1913

• noun massive tropical tree with deep ridges on its massive trunk and bearing large pods of seeds covered with silky floss; source of the silky kapok fiber
  Ceiba pentandra; God tree; Bombay ceiba; kapok; silk-cotton tree; ceiba tree.
  

WordNet

• (Bot.), a name for several tropical trees of the genera Bombax and Eriodendron, and belonging to the order Bombaceæ. The trees grow to an immense size, and have their seeds enveloped in a cottony substance, which is used for stuffing cushions, but can not be spun.

Webster 1913

• . See Cotton flannel, under Cotton.

Webster 1913

• noun 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
  sea island cotton; Gossypium barbadense.
  
• noun East Indian shrub cultivated especially for ornament for its pale yellow to deep purple blossoms
  Gossypium arboreum.
  

WordNet

• noun native tropical American plant now cultivated in the United States yielding short-staple cotton
  Gossypium hirsutum.
  

WordNet

• noun massive tropical tree with deep ridges on its massive trunk and bearing large pods of seeds covered with silky floss; source of the silky kapok fiber
  Ceiba pentandra; God tree; Bombay ceiba; kapok; silk-cotton tree; ceiba tree.
  

WordNet

• noun shrub of southern Arizona and Mexico
  Gossypium thurberi; Arizona wild cotton.
  

WordNet