Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Having a white color that resembles cotton: Describes something that is white in a soft, fluffy, or light manner, similar to the appearance of raw cotton fiber or cotton balls.

Usage

• Adjective:
  • Used attributively (before a noun) to describe the specific white quality of an object.
  • Often evokes a sense of softness, purity, lightness, or fluffiness in addition to the color white.

Examples

• Adjective:
  • The morning fog was cottony-white and clung to the hills.
  • She decorated the cake with cottony-white frosting peaks.

Advanced Usage

• Descriptive Figurative Use: Can be used metaphorically to describe things that are not literally white but share qualities of softness and lightness.
  • His lies were wrapped in cottony-white innocence. (This suggests the deceptions were presented with a facade of pure, soft-seeming honesty.)

Variants and Related Words

• Cottony (adj): Having the texture, appearance, or softness of cotton. Can be used with other colors (e.g., cottony gray clouds) or alone.
• Snow-white (adj): Pure, brilliant white like snow.
• Chalky white (adj): A dull, pale white resembling chalk.

Synonyms

• Fluffy white
• Downy white
• Soft white

Antonyms

• Jet-black
• Ebony
• Charcoal-gray

Related Phrases

• (As) white as cotton: A similic phrase equivalent in meaning to the adjective.
  • The kitten's fur was as white as cotton.

Adjective

1. of something as white as cotton
   • cottony-white clouds