Wiktionary
vb. (context US euphemistic English) to lack employment.
Usage examples of "buy cotton".
Asphalt, Belgian block, cobblestones succeed one another without design whilst everywhere, at irregular intervals, tall telegraph poles with their connecting wires dominate the vista just as the messages those copper wires are constantly transmitting define and govern this raw world: buy cotton, sell gold, make money.
She thought about lying on a real bed in an ordinary bedroom, with street lights shining through the curtains and car doors slamming outside, and a bathroom with a flush toilet and a hot-water tap, and a shop on the corner where you could buy cotton balls and Pampers and Johnson's No More Tears baby shampoo.
Tachyon scolded as they waited for Blaise and Chris to buy cotton candy.
If I send you a wire saying 'Buy cotton,' you'll know that I have no further use for you and you can fade.