vegetable wool

American  

noun

1. wool5

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Etymology

Origin of vegetable wool

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vegetable wool

Alexander the Great introduced the "vegetable wool" into Europe.

From The Age of Invention : a chronicle of mechanical conquest by Thompson, Holland

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

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

The war between the States caused hardly more suffering than the blockade which cut off the spinners of Manchester from the vegetable wool which supplied them the means of living.

From The Fabric of Civilization A Short Survey of the Cotton Industry in the United States by Guaranty Trust Company of New York

And yet both Africa and America made cotton cloth from the vegetable wool long before we knew of it otherwise than as a traveller's wonder.

From The Romance of Industry and Invention by Cochrane, Robert