Meanings
present singular third person touches cotton · participle present touching cotton · participle past touched cotton · past touched cotton
- euphemisticidiomaticintransitiveslangTo struggle to hold back an imminent bowel movement.
After 3 hours at the all-you-can-eat buffet I was totally touching cotton.
1 more example
Once these kids come here today trick or treating, they are gonna get a mouthful — and a pant full ^([sic]) — / Crappin ^([sic]) their shorts all the way into next week... teach them to screw with their elders... they’ll be touching cotton / Yeah those little bastards will be prairie dogging it all the way home!
2011, Alan Moore et al., Visionaries (Vampirella Masters Series), volume 4 (graphic novel), Dynamite Entertainment, →ISBN, page 97Synonyms: crown, grow a tail, prairie dog, turtle head
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo struggle to hold back an imminent bowel movement.
Origin
Referring to the emerging tip of an urgent bowel movement getting in contact with the inner fabric of a pair of underpants (made of cotton — the commonest material — or otherwise).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
touch cotton. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/touch%20cotton
“touch cotton.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/touch%20cotton. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “touch cotton,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/touch%20cotton.
Source: touch cotton on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.