cotton wool vs velvet

cotton wool

noun
  • Raw fibers of cotton before being processed. 

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

velvet

noun
  • A closely woven fabric (originally of silk, now also of cotton or man-made fibres) with a thick short pile on one side. 

  • The drug dextromethorphan. 

  • Money acquired by gambling. 

  • Very fine fur, including the skin and fur on a deer's antlers. 

  • A female chinchilla; a sow. 

adj
  • Soft and delicate, like velvet; velvety. 

  • Peaceful; carried out without violence; especially as pertaining to the peaceful breakup of Czechoslovakia. 

  • Made of velvet. 

verb
  • To remove the velvet from a deer's antlers. 

  • to retract. 

  • To cover with velvet or with a covering of a similar texture. 

  • To coat raw meat in starch, then in oil, preparatory to frying. 

  • To soften; to mitigate. 

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