cotton wool
Noun 1. Soft, fluffy, raw cotton fibers: The natural, unprocessed, and often bleached fibers from the cotton plant, characterized by their soft, white, and absorbent qualities. It is used primarily for medical purposes (e.g., cleaning wounds, applying ointments) and in cosmetic applications. 2. (British English, figurative) A state of excessive protection or insulation from life's difficulties: Used to describe a situation where someone, especially a child, is sheltered from all hardship, risk, or unpleasantness.
- Noun (Literal - Material):
- The nurse used sterile cotton wool to clean the cut.
- Remove your nail polish with a pad of cotton wool soaked in remover.
- Noun (Figurative - Over-protection):
- He was brought up wrapped in cotton wool and never learned to deal with problems himself.
- You can't keep your children in cotton wool forever; they need to experience the real world.
- "to wrap someone in cotton wool": To be excessively protective of someone, shielding them from any potential harm or difficulty.
- She accused her parents of trying to wrap her in cotton wool and not letting her make her own decisions.
- "a cotton-wool existence": A life that is overly sheltered and free from challenge.
- After retiring to the quiet village, he lived a cotton-wool existence, far from the stresses of the city.
- Absorbent cotton (North American English): A common term for the material known as "cotton wool" in British English.
- Cotton ball: A small, rounded ball of compressed cotton wool, often used for cosmetic purposes.
- Cotton pad: A flat, disc-shaped piece of cotton wool, often used for applying toner or removing makeup.
- (For the material): Raw cotton, absorbent cotton, surgical cotton.
- (For the figurative sense): Coddling, mollycoddling, overprotection, pampering, cosseting.
- Cotton-wool clouds: A descriptive, non-idiomatic phrase for soft, fluffy white clouds that resemble balls of cotton wool.
- The sky was dotted with cotton-wool clouds.
The word primarily functions as a compound noun. Its core meaning is the physical material. The figurative meaning is almost exclusively used in the idiom "to wrap (someone) in cotton wool" or its variations ("brought up in cotton wool"), which is particularly common in British English. In American English, the literal material is more frequently called "absorbent cotton" or simply "cotton balls/pads."
- soft silky fibers from cotton plants in their raw state