cottonpickin'

or cot·ton-pick·in'

[ kot-n-pik-uhn ]

adjectiveSlang: Sometimes Offensive.
  1. damned; confounded (used as an intensifier): That's a cottonpickin' lie.

Origin of cottonpickin'

1
An Americanism dating back to 1950–55; cotton + pick1 + -ing2
  • Also cot·ton·pick·ing, cot·ton-pick·ing [kot-n-pik-uhn, -pik-ing]. /ˈkɒt nˌpɪk ən, -ˌpɪk ɪŋ/.

usage note For cottonpickin'

Cottonpickin' is most commonly perceived as a Southern regionalism and an older informal expression in American English. However, because there is no clear sense-related reason to invoke the picking of cotton, and because the expression is used as a negative modifier, many people assume it is a reference to slavery or sharecropping. Knowing that this term can evoke a racial connotation associated with chattel slavery, some speakers actively avoid or replace cottonpickin' with a similar euphemism like doggone, and it has become far less frequent since its peak usage in the 1960s.

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

How to use cottonpickin' in a sentence