Under severe water stress, leaf wilting is quite general in higher plants. This passive movement can reduce the energy load on a leaf. This paper reports an experimental test of the hypothesis that leaf wilting movement has a protective function that mitigates against photoinhibition of photosynthesis in the field. The experiments exposed cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) to two water regimes: waters-tressed and well-watered. Leaf wilting movement occurred in water-stressed plants as the water potential decreased to -4.1 MPa, reducing light interception but maintaining comparable quantum yields of photosystem II (PS II; Yield for short) and the proportion of total PS II centers that were open (qP). Predrawn $F_v/F_m$ (potential quantum yield of PS II) as an indicator of overnight recovery of PS II from photoinhibition was higher than or similar to that in well-watered plants. Compared with water-stressed cotton leaves for which wilting movement was permitted, water-stressed cotton leaves restrained from such movement had significantly increased leaf temperature and instantaneous $CO_2$ assimilation rates in the short term, but reduced Yield, qP, and $F_v/F_m$. In the long term, predrawn $F_v/F_m$ and $CO_2$ assimilation capacity were reduced in water-stressed leaves restrained from wilting movement. These results suggest that, under water stress, leaf wilting movement could reduce the incident light on leaves and their heat load, alleviate damage to the photosynthetic apparatus due to photoinhibition, and maintain considerable carbon assimilation capacity in the long term despite a partial loss of instantaneous carbon assimilation in the short term.