lint

[lint]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR lint ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

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

1325–75; Middle English, variant of linnet; compare Middle French linette linseed, Old English līnet- flax (or flax-field) in līnetwige lintwhite

Related formslint·less, adjectivede·lint, verb (used with object)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples 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.
Backstage at Vera Wang
Isabel Wilkinson
September 14, 2010

Historical Examples of lint

He had brought an instrument case, some linen bands and some lint.
The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete
Emile 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.
The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches,
Mary Eaton
“There is the lint,” said aunt Mary, and she gave Clara a bag to put it in.
Our Young Folks at Home and Abroad
Various
It's the lint, the sticking-plaster and the bandages, and the turn-an'-twist.'
Jack Hinton
Charles James Lever
A very small proportion by weight of the plant is taken by the lint.
The Story of the Cotton Plant
Frederick Wilkinson

British Dictionary definitions for lint

lint

noun

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

Derived Formslinty, adjective

Word Origin for lint

C14: probably from Latin linteus made of linen, from līnum flax

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

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.