cotton wool vs gauze

cotton wool

noun
  • Soft, absorbent cotton for medical or cosmetic use, protective padding, etc. 

  • Raw fibers of cotton before being processed. 

gauze

noun
  • A similar bleached cotton fabric used as a surgical dressing. 

  • A thin fabric with a loose, open weave. 

  • Wire gauze, used as fence. 

  • A thin woven metal or plastic mesh. 

  • Mist or haze 

verb
  • To apply a dressing of gauze 

  • To mist; to become gauze-like. 

How often have the words cotton wool and gauze occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )