a. A workman who spins cotton.
1805. Med. Jrnl., XIV. 481. James Heywood, æt. 33, by trade a cotton-spinner, was admitted into the Manchester Infirmary.
1839. Carlyle, Chartism, iv. 131. Cotton-spinners are generally well paid.
b. A master who employs workmen to spin cotton; the owner of a cotton mill.
1788. in Manchester Directory (15 persons so described).
1792. Specif. Kelly’s Patent No. 1879. 1. William Kelly, of Lanark … Cotton spinner.
1835. Sir R. Peel, Sp., in Fonblanque, Eng. under 7 Administ. (1837), III. 226. That the King had sent for the son of a cotton-spinner, that he might make him Prime Minister of England.
1852. Tennyson, Third Feb. We are not cotton-spinners all, But some love England and her honour yet.
So Cotton-spinnery, a place where cotton is spun; Cotton-spinning vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1839. W. Chambers, Tour Holland, 85/1. The spectacle of cotton-spinneries placed amidst rows of antique buildings, old gloomy churches, and monasteries.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr., III. iv. All work, even cotton-spinning, is noble.
1842. Tennyson, Edwin Morris, 122. ‘Go’ (shrill’d the cotton-spinning chorus).
