cottons

Noun

cotton (usually uncountable, plural cottons)

1. (usually) A soft, fibrous, usually white substance consisting of fine hairs, especially the substance around the seeds of a plant of genus Gossypium.
2. (usually) Any similar soft, fibrous, white substance of fine hairs, of any origin.
3. (usually) A plant of genus Gossypium, used as a source of such fiber.
   • K'a-shih has the most extensive cotton-growing area which amounted to 950 000 mou (6.3 million ares) in 1965.1976, Chuen-Yan David Lai, “Developments of Cotton Cultivation in Sinkiang”, in Pacific Viewpoint, volume 17, number 2, →DOI, archived from the original on 30 Jun 2020, page 162
4. (usually) Any plant that encases its seed in a thin fiber that is harvested and used as a fabric or cloth.
5. (usually) Textiles made from the fiber harvested from a cotton plant, especially Gossypium.
   • Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety. She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 2, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
6. (countable, usually) An item of clothing made from such textiles.
   • The little girls appeared, looking fresh and cool in pretty pink cottons, and we two elder ones seized the opportunity of making a more elaborate toilette than usual.1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 34

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