cotton ceiling

noun

A social barrier to consideration (by cisgender women) of transgender women as viable sexual partners.

Meanings

nouncotton ceiling (plural cotton ceilings)

plural cotton ceilings

  1. A social barrier to consideration (by cisgender women) of transgender women as viable sexual partners.
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cotton, ceiling.

    These ceilings on this house are not a canvas ceiling. They are a cotton ceiling and the water can drop on these ceilings […]

    1933, State of New York Supreme Court Record on Appeal, page 85
    1 more example

    On rough nights, however, the wind that finds its way beneath the rafters keeps drawing up and down the cotton ceiling in sudden gusts, and if the fastenings of your canopy are not very artfully contrived, one end or other of it is sure to give way […]

    1872, Mrs. Edward Millett, An Australian Parsonage; Or, The Settler and the Savage, page 56

Origin

Coined by Canadian activist Drew Deveaux. Modelled on glass ceiling. Underwear is typically made from cotton.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

cotton ceiling. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cotton%20ceiling

MLA

“cotton ceiling.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cotton%20ceiling. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cotton ceiling,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cotton%20ceiling.

Source: cotton ceiling on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.