cotton swab
Sign in to saveAlso known as cotton buds, ear buds, cotton bud, Q-tip, cotton wool bud, ear bud, swab
small wad of cotton wrapped around one or both ends of a short rod
Wikidata facts
- Image
- White menbo.jpg
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- Commons category
- Cotton swabs
- has characteristic
- flammability
- discoverer or inventor
- Leo Gerstenzang
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~8 min read
Encyclopedic overview
A cotton swab
Cotton swabs (American English) or cotton buds (British English), also Q-tips (proprietary eponym, American English), are wads of cotton wrapped around a short rod made of wood, rolled paper, or plastic. They are most commonly used for ear cleaning, although this is not recommended by physicians. Other uses for cotton swabs include first aid, cosmetics application, cleaning, infant care, and crafts. Some countries have banned the plastic-stemmed versions in favor of biodegradable alternatives over concerns about marine pollution.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “cotton swab” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.