"cotton to" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "According to Michael Quinion of World Wide Words, \"It has plausibly been suggested it came from the use of mixtures of cotton and other fibres in clothing. In the early 1800s, to cotton to somebody implied that you were drawn or attached to that person. It may be that the idea here is how well a thread of cotton sticks to the surface of cloth.\"",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cottons to",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cottoning to",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cottoned to",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cottoned to",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "cotton to (third-person singular simple present cottons to, present participle cottoning to, simple past and past participle cottoned to)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs with particle (to)",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1858, Andrew Halliday, Frederick Lawrence, Kenilworth",
          "text": "Her heart's as hard as taxes, and as bad; / She does not even cotton to her dad.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To like; approve of, accept, or tolerate."
      ],
      "id": "en-cotton_to-en-verb-mHQd04ar",
      "links": [
        [
          "like",
          "like"
        ],
        [
          "approve",
          "approve"
        ],
        [
          "accept",
          "accept"
        ],
        [
          "tolerate",
          "tolerate"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To like; approve of, accept, or tolerate."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "cotton on"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-cotton to.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e1/En-au-cotton_to.ogg/En-au-cotton_to.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/En-au-cotton_to.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "cotton to"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "According to Michael Quinion of World Wide Words, \"It has plausibly been suggested it came from the use of mixtures of cotton and other fibres in clothing. In the early 1800s, to cotton to somebody implied that you were drawn or attached to that person. It may be that the idea here is how well a thread of cotton sticks to the surface of cloth.\"",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cottons to",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cottoning to",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cottoned to",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cottoned to",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "cotton to (third-person singular simple present cottons to, present participle cottoning to, simple past and past participle cottoned to)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "cotton on"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrasal verbs",
        "English phrasal verbs with particle (to)",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1858, Andrew Halliday, Frederick Lawrence, Kenilworth",
          "text": "Her heart's as hard as taxes, and as bad; / She does not even cotton to her dad.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To like; approve of, accept, or tolerate."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "like",
          "like"
        ],
        [
          "approve",
          "approve"
        ],
        [
          "accept",
          "accept"
        ],
        [
          "tolerate",
          "tolerate"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To like; approve of, accept, or tolerate."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-cotton to.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e1/En-au-cotton_to.ogg/En-au-cotton_to.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/En-au-cotton_to.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "cotton to"
}