cotton picker

noun

1. a machine for removing the ripe cotton fiber from the standing plant.

cotton picker

noun

1. a machine for harvesting cotton fibre

2. a person who picks ripe cotton fibre from the plants

Word History and Origins

Origin of cotton picker¹

An Americanism dating back to 1825–35

Example Sentences

The mother of a girl at Pepper Tree Elementary School said her daughter, who is Black, was given drawings with the messages, “You’re my favorite monkey” and “To my favorite cotton picker,” according to KTLA-TV Channel 5, which obtained images of the drawings.

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Later in the hallway, the same classmate called her a “cotton picker,” and she heard others talking about dressing up like the Ku Klux Klan for Halloween, she recalled.

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The student yelled for Jonathan Coleman, a Black outside hitter for Burbank High, to “go back to the plantation” and called him the N-word and a “cotton picker,” said Coleman’s mother, Lorri Hubert.

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The mother of eight had worked as a cotton picker in the 1940s in Bakersfield, later moving to Los Angeles and attending church in Compton.

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One of her quilts, which looks like a mosaic of tiny rectangles in many colors, showcases the words: “In essence, I am a sophisticated cotton picker.”

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