COTTON

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cotton mean? 

• COTTON (noun)
  The noun COTTON has 4 senses:

1. soft silky fibers from cotton plants in their raw state

2. fabric woven from cotton fibers

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

4. thread made of cotton fibers

  Familiarity information: COTTON used as a noun is uncommon.

• COTTON (verb)
  The verb COTTON has 1 sense:

1. take a liking to

  Familiarity information: COTTON used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COTTON (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Soft silky fibers from cotton plants in their raw state

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

cotton; cotton fiber; cotton wool

Hypernyms ("cotton" is a kind of...):

plant fiber; plant fibre (fiber derived from plants)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cotton"):

absorbent cotton (cotton made absorbent by removal of the natural wax)

long-staple cotton (cotton with relatively long fibers)

short-staple cotton (cotton with relatively short fibers)

Holonyms ("cotton" is a substance of...):

cotton (fabric woven from cotton fibers)

cushioning; padding (artifact consisting of soft or resilient material used to fill or give shape or protect or add comfort)

Derivation:

cottony (resembling cotton; as soft as cotton)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Fabric woven from cotton fibers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("cotton" is a kind of...):

cloth; fabric; material; textile (artifact made by weaving or felting or knitting or crocheting natural or synthetic fibers)

Meronyms (substance of "cotton"):

cotton; cotton fiber; cotton wool (soft silky fibers from cotton plants in their raw state)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cotton"):

gauze; gauze bandage ((medicine) bleached cotton cloth of plain weave used for bandages and dressings)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Erect bushy mallow plant or small tree bearing bolls containing seeds with many long hairy fibers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

cotton; cotton plant

Hypernyms ("cotton" is a kind of...):

bush; shrub (a low woody perennial plant usually having several major stems)

Meronyms (parts of "cotton"):

cottonseed (seed of cotton plants; source of cottonseed oil)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cotton"):

Gossypium arboreum; tree cotton (East Indian shrub cultivated especially for ornament for its pale yellow to deep purple blossoms)

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)

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)

Gossypium hirsutum; upland cotton (native tropical American plant now cultivated in the United States yielding short-staple cotton)

Gossypium peruvianum; Peruvian cotton (cotton with long rough hairy fibers)

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)

Arizona wild cotton; Gossypium thurberi; wild cotton (shrub of southern Arizona and Mexico)

Holonyms ("cotton" is a member of...):

genus Gossypium; Gossypium (herbs and shrubs and small trees: cotton)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Thread made of cotton fibers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("cotton" is a kind of...):

thread; yarn (a fine cord of twisted fibers (of cotton or silk or wool or nylon etc.) used in sewing and weaving)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cotton"):

lisle; lisle thread (a strong tightly twisted cotton thread (usually made of long-staple cotton))

• COTTON (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Take a liking to

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Context example:

cotton to something

Hypernyms (to "cotton" is one way to...):

like (find enjoyable or agreeable)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

 Context examples 

For every additional 1,000 ladybirds per hectare of cotton, farmers used 0.69 kilograms less insecticide while also saving time from reduced insecticide spraying.

(Study estimates true value of ladybird as biocontrol, SciDev.Net)

The use of cotton thread as a support has several advantages.

(Scientists design devices to calculate the concentration of potassium in water, of creatinine in urine, or glucose in blood using smartphone technology, University of Granada)

“Well?” said my aunt, taking the cotton out of the ear nearest to him.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was really a ball of cotton, but when oil was poured upon it the ball burned fiercely.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

A. radioresistens is commonly found in soil and cotton.

(Acinetobacter radioresistens, NCI Thesaurus)

"Why, I left a pair over there, and here is only one," said Meg, looking at the gray cotton glove.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

An occupational lung disorder caused by exposure to cotton dust.

(Byssinosis, NCI Thesaurus)

The cotton rat has wide applications in viral research.

(Cotton Rat, NCI Thesaurus)

It comes from the seed of the cotton plant (Gossypium).

(Cottonseed meal toxin, NCI Dictionary)

There where you see light-green rushes instead of dark-green undergrowth, there between the great cotton woods, that is my private gate into the unknown.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)