1. Cotton, in its raw and woolly state, as gathered from the bolls of the plant; raw cotton.
1600. Hakluyt, Voy. (1810), III. 544. In this Countrey is great store of Cotten wooll, whereof the Indians make fine linnen cloth.
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., lv. § 1. 215. They apparel themselves with Stuffs made of Silk and Cotten-wool.
1704. Lond. Gaz., No. 3983/4. The Cargo … consisting of … Cotton yarn, Cotton-wooll, &c.
1813. Vansittart, in Examiner, 4 April, 217/2. The Import of Cotton Wool from the United States.
1868. Rogers, Pol. Econ., ii. (1876), 11. In a country like India the same person grows, gathers, cleanses and spins the cotton-wool, and afterwards weaves it into cloth.
† b. pl. Obs.
1638. L. Roberts, Merch. Map Commerce, 118. The commodities that are found here … are cotton woolls … wax, cotton and grogram yarne.
2. The same substance as prepared for wadding, quilting, packing fragile articles, etc.
1870. Emerson, Soc. & Solit., iv. 65. I know no remedy against it but cotton-wool, or the wax which Ulysses stuffed into the ears of his sailors.
1875. T. W. Higginson, Hist. U. S., x. 79. A coat thickly quilted with cotton wool.
1884. W. H. Rideing, in Harper’s Mag., Oct., 522/2. They are carded, and boxed in cotton-wool.
b. (fig.) To be or live in cotton-wool.
1869. Miss Mulock, Woman’s Kingd., II. 45. Letty would never be happy unless she lived in clover and cotton-wool.
1890. J. Payn, Burnt Million, II. xxix. 230. To be in cotton-wool is a phrase significant of superfluous comfort.
3. attrib. and Comb.
1860. Sat. Rev., IX. 65/2. An increase of competition in the cotton-wool market.
1870. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc., xi. (1871), 334. A cotton-wool respirator.
Hence Cotton-wool v. (nonce-wd.), to stuff or close (the ears) with cotton-wool.
1857. Motley, Corr., 3 May. Cotton wooling your ears absolutely to all hand-clapping and greasy mob applause.
