cottons

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of cotton.

   The merchant stocked a dozen cottons ranging from rough canvas to fine voile.

   Lightweight cottons keep travelers comfortable in tropical heat.

   Note

   A plural the base noun mostly does without. Cotton as fiber, plant or cloth is usually uncountable, so cottons signals countable things. It names distinct varieties, grades or commercial lots of the fiber and its cloth, as in a merchant's range of cottons. It can also follow the countable garment sense and mean items of clothing made from it. The same spelling also serves as the verb's present-tense form.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of cotton.

   The new hire quickly cottons to the team's relaxed style.

   She cottons on to a joke faster than anyone in the room.

   Note

   The -s form pairs with he, she or it in the present: she cottons, it cottons. In its literal uses the verb is transitive and takes a direct object. One cottons a lamp with a wick, a wound with a wad, or a wall with fabric. On the model of tar and feather, it can also mean covering someone with tar and cotton bolls. In cotton to and cotton on, it takes a preposition instead.

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