ˈcotton-spinner
1. a. A workman who spins cotton.
| 1805 Med. Jrnl. XIV. 481 James Heywood, æt. 33, by trade a cotton-spinner, was admitted into the Manchester Infirmary. 1839 Carlyle Chartism iv. 131 Cotton-spinners are generally well paid. |
b. A master who employs workmen to spin cotton; the owner of a cotton mill.
| 1788 in Manchester Directory (15 persons so described). 1792 Specif. Kelly's Patent No. 1879. 1 William Kelly, of Lanark..Cotton spinner. 1835 Sir R. Peel Sp. in Fonblanque Eng. under 7 Administ. (1837) III. 226 That the King had sent for the son of a cotton-spinner, that he might make him Prime Minister of England. 1852 Tennyson Third Feb., We are not cotton-spinners all, But some love England and her honour yet. |
2. Zool. A sea-cucumber of the genus Holothuria.
| 1908 E. J. Banfield Confessions of Beachcomber i. iv. 167 Bêche-de-mer... Termed also trepang, sea cucumber, sea slug, cotton spinner. 1936 Russell & Yonge Seas (ed. 2) iii. 65 It [sc. the trepang]..has the curious habit, when irritated, of shooting out masses of sticky white threads... Because of this habit, it is also called the cotton-spinner. 1962 D. Nichols Echinoderms vi. 81 The process [sc. extrusion of cuvierian organs] has given rise to the common name ‘cotton-spinner’ for Holothuria. |
So ˈcotton-spinnery, a place where cotton is spun; ˈcotton-spinning vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1839 W. Chambers Tour Holland 85/1 The spectacle of cotton-spinneries placed amidst rows of antique buildings, old gloomy churches, and monasteries. 1843 Carlyle Past & Pr. iii. iv, All work, even cotton-spinning, is noble. 1842 Tennyson E. Morris 122 ‘Go’ (shrill'd the cotton-spinning chorus). |