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lint

[ lint ]
/ lɪnt /
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See 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.
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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 līnetwigelintwhite

OTHER WORDS FROM lint

lintless, adjectivede·lint, verb (used with object)
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Words related to lint

dirt, earth, grime, powder, sand, soil, soot, fuzz, coat, jacket, pelt, skin, wool, cord, cotton, filament, silk, strand, string, wire

How to use lint in a sentence

  • It includes the great family of the lints and flaxes, and fulfils thus the three offices of giving food, raiment, and rest.

    Modern Painters Vol. III.|John Ruskin

  • These fish were all of the kind called here Lints, a long slender fish 427 now in shoals of millions.

    Audubon and his Journals, Volume I (of 2)|Maria R. Audubon

  • If a proper liniment is procured and lints sprinkled with it wrapped round the joints, the pain will be wonderfully relieved.

    Papers on Health|John Kirk

British Dictionary definitions for lint

lint
/ (lɪnt) /
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 forms of lint

linty, 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
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