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

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

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

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

From The Romance of Industry and Invention by Cochrane, Robert