lint
[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.
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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
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for lint
Contemporary Examples
Makeup is reapplied, lint rollers are re-rolled, and string is cut from the inside of a sock.
Historical Examples
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
A very small proportion by weight of the plant is taken by the 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
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Word Origin
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
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Word Origin and History for lint
n.
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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper