Lint - Definition and Overview

Lint is:

• Lint, Antwerp - a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp.

• A material also known as flooze, composed of loosely compressed clothing fibers which accumulates in the pockets of clothes and in the filters of washing machines. A very commonly encountered form of lint builds up in the navels of many people and is commonly referred to as belly button fluff.

• A type of thick flat cotton wadding, used as a surgical dressing. Originally made of linen, it now consists of a cotton fabric with one fluffy and one smooth side, the latter being applied to the skin. Cotton lint is impregnated with various substances to assist with the healing of wounds and absorption of bodily fluids. It gained its name from the Latin word linteus, "made of linen".

• The name given to the fibrous coat of thick hairs that covers the seeds of the cotton plant. This usage gave rise to the American English expression "lint-head", a derogatory expression for a worker in a cotton mill.

• The name of a programming tool.