lint
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
n.small, soft pieces of thread or fiber that come off clothes and stick to things.
n.accumulated fibrous material or fluff that detaches from fabric and clings to surfaces or collects in pockets.
Simple“I used a sticky roller to remove the white lint from my black coat.”
In context“The dryer's filter was completely clogged with grey lint after several loads of heavy cotton towels.”
- 02 C1 Advanced
v.to use a computer program to check your code for small mistakes or bad style.
v.to perform a static analysis on source code to identify stylistic inconsistencies, potential bugs, or non-idiomatic patterns.
Simple“You should lint your code before you submit it to the team.”
In context“The automated pipeline will lint the entire repository to ensure all contributions adhere to the company's style guide.”
UsageThe verb is transitive and usually takes the source code or the project as its object.
- 03 C2 Proficiency
n.a soft material made from linen or cotton used to cover and protect a cut.
n.a soft, fleecy material produced by scraping linen or cotton cloth, historically used as a surgical dressing for wounds.
Simple“The old first-aid kit contained a small roll of sterilized lint.”
In context“Before modern synthetic bandages were available, surgeons relied on charred lint to treat open wounds on the battlefield.”
From Middle English lynet, linet, from Old French linette (“grain of flax”), diminutive of lin (“flax”); or, from Medieval Latin linteum, from Latin līnum (“flax”).
From the lint Unix utility, written in 1979, which analyses programs written in the C language, itself named after the undesirable bits of fiber and fluff found in sheep's wool (see etymology 1).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.