lint
Americannoun
-
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.
noun
-
an absorbent cotton or linen fabric with the nap raised on one side, used to dress wounds, etc
-
shreds of fibre, yarn, etc
-
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
He has been but a speck of lint on the Lakers’ lapel, a bit of dust at the end of the Lakers’ bench, a small and irrelevant bystander in the Lakers’ long and arduous journey.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 2025
As he put it, “The speed of light is never going to go out of style. Gravity, lint, signs, time itself, is not going to go out of style.”
From Salon ● May 22, 2024
McCoy picked a piece of lint off his sleeve.
From "Made You Up" by Francesca Zappia
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.
