▪ I. linter1 U.S.
(ˈlɪntə(r))
[f. lint1 + -er1.]
a. A machine for stripping off the short-staple cotton-fibre from the cotton-seed after ginning. Also linter-machine. (In recent U.S. Dicts.)
b. pl. A product composed of the short downy hairs or ‘fuzz’ adhering to the cotton seeds (from which it is removed by the linter), which is unsuitable for spinning into yarn and is used as a source of cellulose, etc.
| 1903 E. A. Posselt Cotton Manuf. I. 49 The fibres, short or long, thus obtained, are technically known as ‘Linters’ and are delivered by the condenser of the linting machine as a sheet or film. 1904 L. L. Lamborn Cottonseed Products iv. 50 The purpose of delinting is to remove more completely the short fibres which form the ‘linters’... The products of delinting are the linters. 1927 T. Woodhouse Artificial Silk iii. 13 The short fibres from cotton seeds—to which the name of cotton linters has been given—are utilized for the cellulose solutions. 1967 Shaw & Eckersley Cotton iii. 11 The ‘linters’ from the second and third ginning are used in the waste trade. 1972 Sci. Amer. Dec. 48/2 The early man-made fibers were essentially recast molecules of cellulose originating in wood fibers or cotton linters (very short fibers). 1974 Ibid. Apr. 52/1 Paper..has been and is made from rags, straw, cotton linters, bagasse..and flax. |
▪ II. linter2, † lintan
dial. corruptions of lean-to.
| 1736 New Hampsh. Prov. Papers (1870) IV. 714 'Tis judged the cause [of a fire] was from a spark falling out of the lintan chimney (which was lower than the house). 1861 Mrs. Stowe Pearl of Orr's Isl. 10 A brown house of the kind that the natives call ‘lean to’ or ‘linter’. 1893 F. B. Zincke Wherstead 261 A penthouse is a ‘linter’ (lean-to). |