cotton wool

noun

cotton in its raw state, as on the boll or gathered but unprocessed.
British. absorbent cotton.

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 of cotton wool

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.
One Man's Initiation--1917
John Dos Passos
I tried to intercept it by a large respirator of cotton-wool.
Fragments of science, V. 1-2
John Tyndall
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.
Masterpieces of Mystery, Vol. 1 (of 4)
Various

British Dictionary definitions for cotton wool

cotton wool

noun

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
cotton in the natural state
British informal
1. a state of pampered comfort and protection
2. (as modifier)a cotton-wool existence

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