Word.ws English Dictionary

take a cotton to

take a cotton to verb: synonym of take a shine to (“to become fond of something”).

Verb

take a cotton to (third-person singular simple present takes a cotton to, present participle taking a cotton to, simple past took a cotton to, past participle taken a cotton to)

  1. (US, colloquial, idiomatic) Synonym of take a shine to (“to become fond of something”).
    • “Girl ain't never taken a cotton to me,” Doreen Sue said with another dismissive wave of her hand. “Thinks she's better than me is what it boils down to.”2016, Mae Clair, A Thousand Yesteryears
    Synonyms:
    take a shine to

Synonyms of take a cotton to

Forms of take a cotton to

third-person singular presenttakes a cotton to
present participletaking a cotton to
pasttook a cotton to
past participletaken a cotton to

Questions about take a cotton to

What does take a cotton to mean?
Take a cotton to means synonym of take a shine to (“to become fond of something”).
What part of speech is take a cotton to?
Take a cotton to is a verb.
What is the past tense of take a cotton to?
The past tense of take a cotton to is took a cotton to.

Words near take a cotton to in the dictionary

  1. take a breath
  2. take a breather
  3. take a bullet
  4. take a chair
  5. take a chance
  6. take a cotton to
  7. take a crack at
  8. take a crap
  9. take a decision
  10. take a deep breath
  11. take a dim view of

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take a cotton to (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “take a cotton to.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/take_a_cotton_to. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.