lint
Americannoun
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minute shreds or ravelings of yarn; bits of thread.
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staple cotton fiber used to make yarn.
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cotton waste produced by the ginning process.
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a soft material for dressing wounds, procured by scraping or otherwise treating linen cloth.
noun
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an absorbent cotton or linen fabric with the nap raised on one side, used to dress wounds, etc
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shreds of fibre, yarn, etc
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staple fibre for making cotton yarn
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of lint
1325–75; Middle English, variant of linnet; compare Middle French linette linseed, Old English līnet- flax (or flax-field) in līnetwige lintwhite
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.
His escape hatch came from a chance conversation with a dog owner who was excited to have found a bigger-than-normal lint roller.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
Thirteen billion dollars, beaten by a lint trap.
From MarketWatch ● May 21, 2026
On the fifth floor, inspectors said, inmates were triple-bunked in a hot cell block where the air conditioners were filled with lint.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2024
Gravity, lint, signs, time itself, is not going to go out of style.
From Salon ● May 22, 2024
His recycled sandwich resembled a rubber band squashed in lint.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
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.
