Cotton To Someone or Something

Meaning of Idiom ‘Cotton To Someone Or Something’

To cotton to someone is to like them; to get along with someone; to begin to like someone or appreciate them; to have a favorable view of someone. 1Heacock, Paul. Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms]. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010.,2Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.,3Spears, https://amzn.to/2CEGuCz Richard A. McGraw-Hill’s Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. McGraw-Hill, 2006.

The idiom ‘cotton to someone’ can refer to a specific person or a type of person.

See the related idiom ‘cotton on to someone or something.’

Sentence Examples

“It took a while but I think my mother has finally cottoned on to Jim. She’s begun calling him ‘honey’ like she does the rest of the family.”

“It’s not that he doesn’t like you. It just takes him longer to cotton to new people.”

“I don’t usually cotton to folks who come from the city but Mr. Farnsworth seems alright to me.”

“If you cotton to the sort of person who pays 10 bucks for a cup of coffee and drinks lemon water all day, then you’ll like her.”

“We don’t cotton to your type around here,” said the man in the diner. “Why don’t you get on down the road?”

Origin

The idiom ‘cotton to someone’ has been used since the early 1800s. It references cotton fabric or perhaps cotton thread but for unclear reasons. Like its later variation ‘cotton on to something or someone‘ it may be an extension of the idiom ‘catch the thread of something.’