▪ I. lint1
(lɪnt)
Forms: 4–7 lynt(e, 5 lyn(n)et, 6 linte, 7 (9 dial.) linet, 5– lint.
[In ME. linnet; related (somewhat obscurely) to line n.1; perh. a. F. linette (recorded only in the sense ‘linseed’, but possibly of wider meaning in OF.), f. lin line n.1: see -et1.]
1. (Now only Sc.) The flax-plant.
| 1458 [see lint-sown in 6]. 1548 Turner Names of Herbes 49 Linum is called in englishe Flax, lyne or lynte. 1562 ― Herbal ii. 39 Flax is called of the Northen men lynt. 1733 P. Lindsay Interest Scot. 154 Our present Way is to sow our Lint on any Ground, which puts us to a great Expence to weed it. 1785 Burns Cotter's Sat. Nt. xi, The frugal wifie garrulous will tell, How 'twas a towmond auld, sin' lint was i' the bell. 1805 Forsyth Beauties Scotl. IV. 29 Flax, or, as it is universally called in Scotland, lint, is sown. |
2. (Chiefly
Sc.) Flax prepared for spinning. Also, the refuse of the same, used as a combustible.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce xvii. 612 Pik and ter als haf thai tane, And lynt and hardiss with brynstane. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints iii. (Andreas) 593 Lynt to bet þe fyr of hell. c 1470 Henry Wallace vii. 423 This trew woman thaim seruit weill in deid, With lynt and fyr, that haistely kendill wald. 1562 Durham Depos. (Surtees) 72 To pay the said Isabell every yere one bonde of lynt. 1591 Harington Orl. Fur. xxxiv. lxxxvii, Each roome therein was full of divers fleeces Of wooll, of lint, of silk, or els of cotten. 1741 in A. Laing Lindores Abbey xxi. (1876) 272 For one hundred weight of lint to be given out to the poor people of the paroche to spin. 179. Burns Weary Pund o' Tow 5, I bought my wife a stane o' lint As gude as e'er did grow; And a' that she has made o' that Is ae poor pund o' tow. 1830 Scott Demonol. ix. 330 It was at different times a brazier's shop, and a magazine for lint. |
3. a. A soft material for dressing wounds (formerly also to burn for tinder), prepared by ravelling or scraping linen cloth.
† In
pl., pieces of this material.
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 83 Fille þe wounde wiþinneforþ with lynnet of lynnen clooþ. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 306/1 Lynt, schauynge of lynen clothe, carpea. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. xii. 333 The same..layde to with fine linte or lynnen, doth swage and mitigate the payne. ? c 1600 Distracted Emp. v. iii. in Bullen O. Pl. III. 249 May theire sore wast theire lynnen into lynte. 1612 W. Parkes Curtaine-Dr. (1876) 55 Let him but finde the least sparke in the lint, hee neuer ceaseth blowing till he haue made it a huge flame. 1622 Beaum. & Fl. Sea-Voy. iii. i, O that I had my boxes and my lints now. 1670 Cotton Espernon iii. x. 498 Very much weakened with ten great wounds, and roul'd up with Lints and Plaisters. 1707 Farquhar Beaux Stratagem v. iv, Do, do, Daughter—while I get the Lint, and the Probe and the Plaister ready. 1767 Gooch Treat. Wounds I. 189 Lint or Puff-ball, moistened in Alcohol Vini..will generally answer the purpose. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth ii, He..hastily took from his purse some dry lint, to apply to the slight wound. 1833 H. Martineau Charmed Sea iv. 51 To scrape lint and nurse the wounded was proper woman's employment down in Poland yonder. 1884 M. Mackenzie Dis. Throat & Nose II. 63 Drainage [of the abscess] was kept up by means of a strip of lint. |
b. Fluff of any material.
† Also, a particle of the same.
rare.
| 1611 Cotgr., Freluche,..a small straw, or lint. a 1663 Howard Committee ii. i. Four Plays (1665) 88 Driving the lint from his black Cloathes With his Wet Thumb. 1898 Century Mag. Jan. 372/2 After a little the saws clogged with lint, the wheel stopped, and poor Whitney was in despair. |
4. a. Now only
dial. or
U.S. Netting for fishing-nets.
† b. A net for the hair.
Obs. rare—1.
| a. 1615 E. S. Britain's Buss in Arb. Garner III. 629 Which 245 yards of Lint or Netting (ready made or knit) will cost three pence a yard. 1874 Holdsworth Deep-sea Fishing ii. 101 That length of line being appropriated to the 30 yards of [drift-]net, so that the ‘lint’ or netting is set slack. 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., Lint (Fishing), a fisherman's name for the netting of a pound or seine. 1892 P. H. Emerson Son of Fens 37 They ligged the ground rope in, and begun pulling in the lint to the cod end. |
| b. a 1828 Ld. Livingston xxxii. in Child Ballads IV. 433/2 There's never lint gang on my head. |
5. The material which forms the bulk of the fibres in the cotton boll (
cf. linter1 b), which is separated from the cotton seeds by ginning and which after processing is the ordinary cotton of commerce.
| 1877 Encycl. Brit. VI. 483/1 When this [sc. ginning] is done there remains of the bulk, as gathered from the tree, about one-third of clean cotton fit for manufacturing purposes, and two-thirds of seed. The separation of the seed from the lint is accomplished by different methods. 1883 ‘Mark Twain’ Life on Mississippi xxxiii. 325 In sixteen hundred pounds crude cotton four hundred are lint, worth, say, ten cents a pound. 1967 Shaw & Eckersley Cotton iii. 10 The seed cotton..may be ginned three times but only the ‘lint’ from the first ginning is used in normal cotton spinning. |
6. attrib. and
Comb., as
lint-boll (
lint-bow),
lint-mill,
lint-pad,
lint-sheaf,
lint-speck;
lint-sown ppl. a.;
lint-box (
U.S.), the upper part of a cotton-press;
lint-doctor Calico-printing (see
quot.);
lint-haired = flaxen-haired;
lint-head U.S. dial., a worker in a cotton mill; (in contemptuous use) a person of whom one disapproves;
lint-paper, ?
= linen-paper;
lint-scraper, a person employed to scrape lint (for hospital use); also (
slang), a contemptuous name for a young surgeon;
† lint-spurge, a name proposed for the plant
Euphorbia Esula;
lint-top (
Sc. -tap), as much flax as is usually laid on a distaff for being spun off. Also
lint-white a.
| c 1470 Henryson Mor. Fab. viii. (Preach. Swallow) xxvii, Me think, quhen that yone *lint-bollis ar ryip, To mak ws feist. a 1585 Polwart Flyting w. Montgomerie 552 Athort his nitty now Ilke louse lyes linkand like a large lint bow. |
| 1901 G. W. Cable Cavalier xxi, The *lint-box of the old cotton-press was covered with wet morning-glories. |
| 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 217 Another..sharp-edged ruler, called the *lint doctor, whose office it is to remove any fibres which may have come off the calico in the act of printing. |
| 1891 V. C. Cotes 2 Girls on Barge 78 A dirty *lint-haired ragamuffin. |
| 1933 E. Caldwell God's Little Acre vii. 108 I'd rather be a God-forsaken *lint-head and live in a yellow company house. 1940 C. McCullers Heart is Lonely Hunter (1943) ii. iv. 128, I would have just been a preacher or a linthead or a salesman. 1969 ‘J. Morris’ Fever Grass xvi. 138, I didn't kill that big linthead. You did! |
| 1805 Forsyth Beauties Scotl. IV. 49 Upon this water there are..two *lint-mills. |
| 1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 482 Wet *lint-pad and bandage applied. |
| 1794 Blumenbach in Phil. Trans. LXXXIV. 180 The outward ones had some traces of our common *lint paper. |
| 1861 Thackeray Lovel vi. (1869) 241 If Miss Prior..prefers this *lint-scraper to me, ought I to baulk her? 1881 Instr. Census Clerks (1885) 48 Lint Scraper. |
| 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth 168 Some persons..recommend to set up the *lint sheaves..in stooks, like grain. |
| 1458 Extracts Burgh Rec. Peebles (1872) 128 Al the wast land that was *lynt or corn sawin. |
| 1827–35 Willis Parrhasius 53 The *lint-specks floated in the twilight air. |
| 1548 Turner Names of Herbes (E.D.S.) 63 Pityusa..oughte to be called..*Lint⁓spourge, for it hath smal leaues like Flax. |
| 1721 Ramsay Bessy Bell & Mary G. ii, Bessy's hair's like a *lint tap. |
▪ II. lint2 dial. (
lɪnt)
[Short for lintle lentil.] = lentil (chiefly in
pl.).