cotton gin


noun
  1. a machine for separating the fibers of cotton from the seeds.

Origin of cotton gin

1
An Americanism dating back to 1790–1800

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use cotton gin in a sentence

  • The maker of the cotton gin worked another revolution in commerce, and rice proved to be an unfailing staple.

  • He began to work out his idea of the cotton gin, but met with many obstacles.

  • One man with a Whitney cotton gin can clean a thousand pounds of cotton in place of the five pounds formerly cleaned by hand.

  • It would seem that no one man invented this art in the way that Stephenson invented the locomotive and Whitney the cotton gin.

  • The history of cotton and the cotton-gin, and of the manufacture of cotton goods, is exceedingly interesting.

    Soil Culture | J. H. Walden