Lint
name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Clinging fuzzy fluff that clings to fabric or accumulates in one's pockets or navel etc. uncountable, usually
"Clean the lint out of the vacuum cleaner's filter."
- 2 cotton or linen fabric with the nap raised on one side; used to dress wounds wordnet
- 3 A fine material made by scraping cotton or linen cloth; used for dressing wounds. uncountable, usually
- 4 fine ravellings of cotton or linen fibers wordnet
- 5 The fibrous coat of thick hairs covering the seeds of the cotton plant. uncountable, usually
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- 6 Raw cotton ready for baling. uncountable, usually
- 1 To perform a static check on (source code) to detect stylistic or programmatic errors. transitive
"You should lint your JavaScript code before committing it."
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"Be sure to clear the lint trap before you run the dryer. Otherwise, you might start a fire."
Etymology
From Middle English lynet, linet, from Old French linette (“grain of flax”), diminutive of lin (“flax”); or, from Medieval Latin linteum, from Latin līnum (“flax”).
From the lint Unix utility, written in 1979, which analyses programs written in the C language, itself named after the undesirable bits of fiber and fluff found in sheep's wool (see etymology 1).
* As an occupational English surname, from the noun lint, chiefly in the Scottish English sense "flax fibers for spinning." * As a Dutch surname, from several placenames with the element Lint, probably from linde (“lime tree”).
Related phrases
More for "lint"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.