v. [f. COTTON sb. + -IZE.] trans. To reduce (flax, hemp, etc.) to a short staple resembling cotton. Cf. FLAX-COTTON.
Hence Cottonized ppl. a., Cottonizing vbl. sb.
1851. McDermott, in Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XII. I. 241. The causes which … led him to experiment upon flax, for the purpose of ‘cottonizing’ it. Ibid., 246. The specific gravity of the cottonized substance will also be precisely similar to that of cotton itself.
1853. Wilson, Ibid. XIV. I. 199. The attempt … to cottonize flax has been discovered to be really no novelty.
1890. Times, 19 Aug., 10/4. Cottonizing and woollenizing fibres to imitate fine cotton or wool.
