vegetable wool

noun

1. wool5

Word History and Origins

Origin of vegetable wool¹

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

Alexander’s officer Nearchus reported that when they got there, they found its locals clad in a “vegetable wool”, later identified as cotton wool.

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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.

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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.

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This was because of the 'vested interests' in wool and silk, which combined to keep out the vegetable wool from general use.

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

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