Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way. The earliest example that I can find of this is from the New South Wales newspaper None of the early citations of the phrase mention that context.

Cotton Name Meaning. be in tall cotton To be in a time or period of great success or wellbeing; to be doing very well. Whether this was as a reference to the rather annoying predisposition of moist raw cotton to stick to things or whether it alluded to moving of cotton garments closer together during a romantic advance isn't clear. John Camden Hotten, in his Slang Dictionary, 1869, opted for the former derivation: Cotton, to like, adhere to, or agree with any person; "to COTTON on to a man," to attach yourself to him, or fancy him, literally, to stick to him as cotton would. cotton synonyms, cotton pronunciation, cotton translation, English dictionary definition of cotton. Not so; which gives more credibility to the notion that this phrase has little to do with the cotton plant. want; accept; appreciate; to put up with; to take kindly to.

We were in tall cotton after my wife's late uncle left us his fortune. cotton on - understand, usually after some initial difficulty; "She didn't know what her classmates were plotting but finally caught on" catch on , get it , get onto , get wise , twig , latch on , tumble

The attaching of cotton strands to the bobbins of weaving looms is sometimes also cited as a source of 'cottoning on', but there appears to be no basis for that notion. This is the British English definition of cotton.View American English definition of cotton.. Change your default dictionary to American English. They had to resort to the brook in the woods behind the, This substance is found quite pure in many bodies, especially in, However, he acquired some knowledge of the, "Debby was very good to me, for she never stopped to scold, but laid me down on the old sofa, and bound up my poor little feet with oil and, A graceful, elegantly-formed young man stood by her, carelessly leaning one elbow on a bale of, Those allied powers were considerably astonished, when they arrived within a few minutes of each other, to find an unknown lady of portentous appearance, sitting before the fire, with her bonnet tied over her left arm, stopping her ears with jewellers', Their one object seemed to be to plant nothing but, sat upon the throne, there lived a learned gentleman called Sir Robert Bruce. Post the Definition of cotton to to Facebook, Share the Definition of cotton to on Twitter, 9 Pairs of Words That Look the Same But Different. See also: the meaning and origin of 'cotton-picking'.

Accessed 2 Oct. 2020.

In the UK and its antipodes it has settled down as 'cotton on to', with the meaning 'form an understanding of' and in the USA it is 'cotton to', with the 'take a liking to' meaning. This citation was closely followed by a reference in a New Zealand newspaper The Wanganui Herald, June 1893: The Kaierau forwards are just beginning to cotton on to the passing game. n. 1. a. "Cotton-Eyed Joe" Song; Published: Before 1861: Genre: Country folk "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (also known as "Cotton-Eye Joe") is a traditional American country folk song popular at various times throughout the United States and Canada, although today it is most commonly associated with the American Southeast.

What made you want to look up cotton to?

Cotton on definition: If you cotton on to something, you understand it or realize it, especially without people... | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples To save this word, you'll need to log in.

The number of citations that use 'cottening' in a courtship context and the use of the 'cottening up' variant would suggest the latter is more likely; for example, William Congreave's comic play Love for Love, 1695: I love to see 'em hug and cotten together, like Down upon a Thistle.
Cotton to definition is - to begin to like (someone or something).

In the USA, especially in the southern states, 'cotton to' is used, with the slightly modified meaning of 'take a liking to'.

The phrase 'cotton on to', with the above meaning, appears to be limited in usage to the UK and other countries that were previously part of the British Empire, notably Australia and New Zealand.

The meaning of Cotton is “Woody hill; cottage hill”. See also: cotton, tall be touching cotton vulgar slang To have a very urgent or desperate need to defecate.

It seems that 'cotton to', 'cotton on to' all derive from the same root source, that is, the verb 'to cotton'. "Now I suggest you turn off the steam on the iron and have it on cotton setting to cook the bacon, because we all know that cotton is Latin for bacon." The phrase 'cotton on to', with the above meaning, appears to be limited in usage to the UK and other countries that were previously part of the British Empire, notably Australia and New Zealand. 'Cottoning on' as we now use it derives from the meaning of 'attaching oneself to something', specifically an attachment to an idea that we haven't encountered before. “Cotton to.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cotton%20to. All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. Delivered to your inbox!

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It would seem to be a reasonable bet that at least one of the variants of this phrase would have been coined in one of the major English-speaking cotton producing regions of the world, for example India or the USA.

I hear Jeff's in tall cotton out in New York City.

'Cotton to' was coined in the UK and the first widespread uses of 'cotton on to' were in New Zealand and Australia. a dog that didn't cotton to strangers; an administration that will cotton up to the most repressive of regimes. "The German bosses ... never cottoned to such changes", Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary, the webmaster's page for free fun content, Cotton and Allied Textiles Industry Advisory Committee, Cotton Arbitration and Testing General Organization.


When a few letters make a large difference.

'Cotten up to' and 'cotten to' were both used to mean 'become friendly with'. As early as 1648, in a pamphlet titled Mercurius Elencticus, mocking the English parliament, the royalist soldier and poet Sir George Wharton used 'cotton', or as it was spelled then 'cotten', as a verb meaning 'to make friendly advances'. Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).