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cotton batten
< cotton batting
DCHP-2 (Aug 2012)
Spelling variants:batten,
n.
soft stuffing of cotton or polyester.
Type: 2. Preservation — This form appears to derive from "cotton batting", which is attested in the US since the early 1800s. The phrase itself comes from the process of hitting cotton fibres with a bat to make them fluffy. This term occurs most frequently in Canada (see Chart 1).
See also COD-2, s.v. "batten", which is marked "Cdn", and "cotton batten", which is marked "N Amer".
See also COD-2, s.v. "batten", which is marked "Cdn", and "cotton batten", which is marked "N Amer".
Quotations
1880
[...]we have only to record the establishment of a single new enterprise within the limit of the city, namely, a Cotton Batten Factory capable of a business[...]
1932
I have just finished making a laundry bag which consists of a doll's head and shoulders stuffed with cotton batten and a face marked in black ball-proof cotton.
1954
Chuckles spread through the courtroom as a white box containing an egg resting on cotton batten was passed to the witness and defense counsel[...]
1987
A chemistry "magic" show in which nitrocellulose is used to make a dinner plate-sized wad of cotton batten vanish.
2015
Jokes: While walking on the sidewalk beside his church, our minister heard the intonation of a prayer that nearly made his collar wilt. Apparently his five-year-old son and his friend had found a dead robin. Feeling that proper burial should be performed, they found a small box, some cotton batten and put the robin in. Then they dug a hole and made ready for the deceased. The minister's son was to say the prayers, and with much dignity he said what he thought his father always said: "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and in the hole he goes."
References
- COD-2
Images
