lint

lint

[from Unix's lint(1), named for the bits of fluff it supposedly picks from programs] 1. vt. To examine a program closely for style, language usage, and portability problems, esp. if in C, esp. if via use of automated analysis tools, most esp. if the Unix utility lint(1) is used. This term used to be restricted to use of lint(1) itself, but (judging by references on Usenet) it has become a shorthand for desk check at some non-Unix shops, even in languages other than C. Also as v. delint. 2. n. Excess verbiage in a document, as in "This draft has too much lint".

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

Lint (?), n. [AS. linet flax, hemp, fr. lin flax; or, perh. borrowed fr. L. linteum a linen cloth, linen, from linteus linen, a., fr. lineum flax, lint. See Linen.]

1.

Flax.

2.

Linen scraped or otherwise made into a soft, downy or fleecy substance for dressing wounds and sores; also, fine ravelings, down, fluff, or loose short fibers from yarn or fabrics.

Lint doctor Calico-printing Mach., a scraper to remove lint from a printing cylinder.

© Webster 1913.