vegetable wool

American  

noun

1. wool5

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Etymology

Origin of vegetable wool

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

Grain, fruit and vegetable, wool, silk and cotton, gold, silver and iron, steam and electricity,—were not all, like the spark, within arm's reach of savage man?

From Heart of Man by Woodberry, George Edward

He then showed her the vegetable wool and vegetable hair he had collected, and told her where they grew.

From Foul Play by Reade, Charles

The best operatives of Lancashire were attracted sooner or later to assist the triumphs of art over the vegetable wool.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 5 "Cosway" to "Coucy" by Various

This was the vegetable wool of the ancients, which many learned authorities have identified with the byssus, in bandages of cloth made from which the old Egyptians wrapped their mummies.

From The Romance of Industry and Invention by Cochrane, Robert

Of this vegetable wool, or cotton, they fabricate various kinds of pure white cloth, some of which I have seen as fine as our best lawns, if not finer.

From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 09 Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time by Kerr, Robert