cotton gin
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of cotton gin
An Americanism dating back to 1790–1800
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Eli Whitney’s cotton gin expanded slavery across the Deep South.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 30, 2025
“Any time a cotton gin burned down in the South, they pointed to the Wide Awakes and other more radical antislavery Northerners and said, ‘This is arson.’”
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 13, 2025
Keeping up with the pace of technology has challenged Congress since the steam engine and the cotton gin transformed the nation’s industrial and agricultural sectors.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 10, 2024
The unincorporated area comprises Woodlawn Missionary Baptist, a cotton gin and some houses.
From New York Times • May 29, 2023
Other instances are Eli Whitney’s 1794 invention of his cotton gin to replace laborious hand cleaning of cotton grown in the U.S.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
