Crossword clues for cotton wool
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cotton \Cot"ton\ (k[o^]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.]
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.
The cotton plant. See Cotten plant, below.
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Cloth made of cotton.
Note: 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 Gossypium 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 (Zo["o]l.), a species of bark louse ( Pulvinaria innumerabilis), which does great damage to the cotton plant.
Cotton shrub. Same as Cotton plant.
Cotton stainer (Zo["o]l.), 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.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context US English) raw fibers of cotton before being processed 2 (context British English) absorbent cotton for medical or cosmetic use etc.
WordNet
n. silky fibers from cotton plants in their raw state [syn: cotton]
Usage examples of "cotton wool".
His brain had stopped working, had turned to cotton wool, and he could think no coherent thought.
Morrie examines his nose and swabs out a bit of blood with cotton wool on a small stick and says there's nothing broken, Bozo's going to keep his nice straight nose.
His head still felt stuffed with damp cotton wool, though, and the back of his throat was raspy with salt.
It will live for over a week like this, as long as the cotton wool is renewed every few days, or daily in hot weather.
They look like light pieces of cotton wool, and their presence usually announces some sudden change in the weather.
Many had balls of cotton wool stuffed in their ears, but they courted deafness as well as death with every shot.
On this cotton wool the condemned man is laid, face down, quite naked, of course.
He knew the procedure: place a thin, circular pad of cotton wool under each lid to compensate for the sinking of the eyeballs into the socket.
He removed a tuft of cotton wool, shook out one of the little pills, and slid it under his tongue as Rhoodie had told him to do.
There was no silence for even though his hearing was dulled, as though his eardrums were filled with cotton wool, yet he could still hear the echoes of the drill thunder resounding against the roof of his skull.
And the decorations: the paper holly and berries, the spiralling streamers of crepe paper, the cotton wool and the Jack Frost that stuck to fingers and clothes, the balloons, the lanterns.
The small pimples of cotton wool were still stuck to his bright new chin but his eyes were dark and old and tired.