Cot"ton , v. i. 1. To
rise with a
regular nap, as cloth does. [Obs.]
It cottons well; it can not choose but bear
A pretty nap.
Family of Love.
2. To go on
prosperously; to succeed. [Obs.]
New, Hephestion, does not this matter cotton as I would?
Lyly.
3. To unite; to agree; to make friends; - - usually followed by with. [Colloq.]
A quarrel will end in one of you being turned off, in which case
it will not
be easy to
cotton with another.
Swift.
Didst see, Frank, how the old goldsmith cottoned in with his beggarly companion?
Sir W.
Scott.
4. To take a liking to; to
stick to one as cotton; -- used with to. [Slang]
Cot"ton (k&obreve;t"t'n), n. [F. coton, Sp.
algodon the cotton plant and its
wool, coton printed cotton, cloth, fr. Ar. qutun, alqutun, cotton wool. Cf. Acton, Hacqueton.]
1. A soft, downy
substance, resembling fine
wool, consisting of the unicellular twisted hairs which grow on the
seeds of the cotton plant. Long-staple cotton has a
fiber sometimes almost two inches long; short-staple, from two thirds of an
inch to an inch and a half.
2. The cotton plant. See Cotten plant, below.
3. Cloth made of cotton.
&fist;
Cotton is used as an adjective before many nouns in a
sense which commonly needs no explanation; as, cotton bagging; cotton cloth; cotton goods; cotton industry; cotton mill; cotton spinning; cotton tick.
Cotton cambric. See Cambric, n.,
2. -- Cotton flannel, 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. --
Cotton gin, a machine to
separate the seeds from cotton, invented by Eli Whitney. -- Cotton
grass (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. -- Cotton mouse (Zool.), a field mouse (Hesperomys
gossypinus), injurious to cotton crops. - - Cotton plant (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. -- Cotton press, a building and machinery in which cotton bales are compressed into smaller bulk for shipment; a press for baling cotton. -- Cotton rose (Bot.), a genus of composite herbs (Filago), covered with a white substance resembling cotton. -- Cotton scale (Zoöl.),
a species of bark louse
(Pulvinaria innumerabilis), which does great damage to the
cotton plant. -- Cotton shrub. Same as Cotton plant. -- Cotton stainer
(Zoöl.), a species of hemipterous insect (Dysdercus suturellus), which seriously damages growing cotton by staining it; -- called also
redbug. -- Cotton thistle (Bot.),
the Scotch thistle. See under Thistle. --
Cotton velvet,
velvet in which the warp and woof
are both of
cotton, and the pile is of silk; also,
velvet made wholly of cotton. -- Cotton waste, the refuse of cotton mills. -- Cotton wool, cotton in its
raw or woolly state. -- Cotton worm (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.
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Hear it pronounced
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