Vel·vet n.
 1. A silk fabric, having a short, close nap of erect threads.  Inferior qualities are made with a silk pile on a cotton or linen back, or with other soft fibers such as nylon, acetate, or rayon.
 2. The soft and highly vascular deciduous skin which envelops and nourishes the antlers of deer during their rapid growth.
 Cotton velvet, an imitation of velvet, made of cotton.
 Velvet cork, the best kind of cork bark, supple, elastic, and not woody or porous.
 Velvet crab Zool., a European crab (Portunus puber).  When adult the black carapace is covered with a velvety pile.  Called also lady crab, and velvet fiddler.
 Velvet dock Bot., the common mullein.
 Velvet duck. Zool. (a) A large European sea duck, or scoter (Oidemia fusca).  The adult male is glossy, velvety black, with a white speculum on each wing, and a white patch behind each eye. (b) The American whitewinged scoter. See Scoter.
 Velvet flower Bot., love-lies-bleeding. See under Love.
 Velvet grass Bot., a tall grass (Holcus lanatus) with velvety stem and leaves; -- called also soft grass.
 Velvet runner Zool., the water rail; -- so called from its quiet, stealthy manner of running. [Prov. Eng.]
 Velvet scoter. Zool. Same as Velvet duck, above.
 Velvet sponge. Zool. See under Sponge.
 in velvet having a coating of velvet2 over the antlers; in the annual stage where the antlers are still growing; -- of deer.


 Cot·ton n.
 1. A soft, downy substance, resembling fine wool, consisting of the unicellular twisted hairs which grow on the seeds of the cotton plant. Long-staple cotton has a fiber sometimes almost two inches long; short-staple, from two thirds of an inch to an inch and a half.
 2. The cotton plant. See Cotten plant, below.
 3. Cloth made of cotton.
 Note: ☞ Cotton is used as an adjective before many nouns in a sense which commonly needs no explanation; as, cotton bagging; cotton cloth; cotton goods; cotton industry; cotton mill; cotton spinning; cotton tick.
 Cotton cambric. See Cambric, n., 2.
 Cotton flannel, the manufactures' name for a heavy cotton fabric, twilled, and with a long plush nap. In England it is called swan's-down cotton, or Canton flannel.
 Cotton gin, a machine to separate the seeds from cotton, invented by Eli Whitney.
 Cotton grass Bot., a genus of plants (Eriphorum) of the Sedge family, having delicate capillary bristles surrounding the fruit (seedlike achenia), which elongate at maturity and resemble tufts of cotton.
 Cotton mouse Zool., a field mouse (Hesperomys gossypinus), injurious to cotton crops.
 Cotton plant Bot., a plant of the genus Gossypium, of several species, all growing in warm climates, and bearing the cotton of commerce.  The common species, originally Asiatic, is Gossypium herbaceum.
 Cotton press, a building and machinery in which cotton bales are compressed into smaller bulk for shipment; a press for baling cotton.
 Cotton rose Bot., a genus of composite herbs (Filago), covered with a white substance resembling cotton.
 Cotton scale Zool., a species of bark louse (Pulvinaria innumerabilis), which does great damage to the cotton plant.
 Cotton shrub. Same as Cotton plant.
 Cotton stainer Zool., a species of hemipterous insect (Dysdercus suturellus), which seriously damages growing cotton by staining it; -- called also redbug.
 Cotton thistle Bot., the Scotch thistle. See under Thistle.
 Cotton velvet, velvet in which the warp and woof are both of cotton, and the pile is of silk; also, velvet made wholly of cotton.
 Cotton waste, the refuse of cotton mills.
 Cotton wool, cotton in its raw or woolly state.
 Cotton worm Zool., a lepidopterous insect (Aletia argillacea), which in the larval state does great damage to the cotton plant by eating the leaves. It also feeds on corn, etc., and hence is often called corn worm, and Southern army worm.