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Definition of "floss" []

  • Dental floss. (noun)
  • Short or waste silk fibers, especially from the outer surface of the cocoon of a silkworm. (noun)
  • Soft, loosely twisted thread, as of silk or cotton, used in embroidery. (noun)
  • A downy or silky fibrous substance, such as corn silk or silk cotton. (noun)
  • To clean between (teeth) with dental floss. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "floss" in a sentence
  • "At least fairy floss is still affordable, though I'll be keeping a low profile this afternoon while hundreds of local children hit one almighty sugar crash!"
  • "The more that I think about it, the more this case resembles McNeil-PPC v. Pfizer, the dental floss case from SDNY, where the key question was what it meant to “floss” — did it mean to floss correctly, or to floss the way most people actually floss, which is to say badly."
  • "I was also in a good mood because I found a shop selling embroidery supplies and there is apparently no equivalent in Heidelberg except the Kaufhof selling a few colors of floss, which is a much bigger town."