To remove lint or fibrous material from something, especially from cotton seeds during processing.
From 'de-' (meaning 'remove') plus 'lint' (from Latin 'linctus,' related to 'linen' and 'line'). This is a modern industrial term created to describe a specific manufacturing process.
When cotton is harvested, it's covered in fluffy lint—delinting machines were invented to strip this away so you're left with just the seeds, and this process dramatically improved cotton production in the 1700s.
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