cotton gin

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A machine that separates the seeds, seed hulls, and other small objects from the fibers of cotton.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A machine used in separating the seeds from cotton fibers.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A machine used for separating cotton fibers from cotton seeds, etc.
• noun slang Any mechanism that separates one person from another, whether it be distance, time, or apathy

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a machine that separates the seeds from raw cotton fibers