Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

cotton wool

See more synonyms for cotton wool on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. cotton in its raw state, as on the boll or gathered but unprocessed.
  2. British. absorbent cotton.
Show More

Origin of cotton wool

First recorded in 1590–1600
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for cotton wool

Historical Examples

  • That,” she said more or less after Sterne, “is a cotton-wool story.

    The Children

    Alice Meynell

  • Round about the shrapnel burst in little puffs like cotton-wool.

  • I tried to intercept it by a large respirator of cotton-wool.

  • This man, Buchanan, that is over us at present, he is no better than a bit of cotton-wool.

    Daisy

    Elizabeth Wetherell

  • I know—the oil from that old reading-lamp and this cotton-wool.

British Dictionary definitions for cotton wool

cotton wool

noun
  1. Also called: purified cotton mainly British bleached and sterilized cotton from which the gross impurities, such as the seeds and waxy matter, have been removed: used for surgical dressings, tampons, etcUsual US term: absorbent cotton
  2. cotton in the natural state
  3. British informal
    1. a state of pampered comfort and protection
    2. (as modifier)a cotton-wool existence
Show More
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012