lint
- minute shreds or ravelings of yarn; bits of thread.
- staple cotton fiber used to make yarn.
- cotton waste produced by the ginning process.
- a soft material for dressing wounds, procured by scraping or otherwise treating linen cloth.
Origin of lint
Related Words for lint
cord, wire, string, yarn, wool, filament, silk, strand, cotton, grime, dirt, soil, powder, soot, earth, lint, sand, fuzz, jacket, coatExamples from the Web for lint
Contemporary Examples of lint
Makeup is reapplied, lint rollers are re-rolled, and string is cut from the inside of a sock.
Historical Examples of lint
He had brought an instrument case, some linen bands and some lint.
The Three Cities Trilogy, CompleteEmile Zola
A cloth should never be used, for it leaves some lint behind; but take off the dust with a painter's brush, or a pair of bellows.
“There is the lint,” said aunt Mary, and she gave Clara a bag to put it in.
It's the lint, the sticking-plaster and the bandages, and the turn-an'-twist.'
Jack HintonCharles James Lever
He also describes a machine for separating the seed from the fibre or lint.
The Story of the Cotton PlantFrederick Wilkinson
lint
- an absorbent cotton or linen fabric with the nap raised on one side, used to dress wounds, etc
- shreds of fibre, yarn, etc
- mainly US staple fibre for making cotton yarn
Word Origin for lint
Word Origin and History for lint
late 14c., "flax prepared for spinning," also "refuse of flax used as kindling," somehow from the source of Old English lin "flax" (see linen), perhaps from or by influence of Middle French linette "grain of flax," diminutive of lin "flax," from Latin linum "flax, linen;" Klein suggests from Latin linteum "linen cloth," neuter of adjective linteus. Later "flax refuse used as tinder or for dressing wounds" (c.1400). Still used for "flax" in Scotland in Burns' time. Applied in American English to stray cotton fluff.