woolly

woolly, a. (n.)
  (ˈwʊlɪ)
  Also 6 woolley, 7 wolly, 7, 9 wooly, 8 Sc. ooy.
  [f. wool n. + -y¹. Cf. (M)LG. wullig, Du., G. wollig.]
  A. adj.
  1. Consisting of wool. Also transf. relating to wool; containing wool (or sheep).

1591 Spenser M. Hubberd 302 Giuing accompt of th' annuall increace Both of their lambes, and of their woolley fleece. 1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 165 He had upon his upper Garment, some black Sheep-skin, the woolly side out. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 493 Thus while she sings, the Sisters turn the Wheel, Empty the wooly Rock, and fill the Reel. 1700 ― Ovid's Met. xv. Pythag. Phil. 171 The Sheep..A patient, useful Creature, born to bear The warm and woolly Fleece, that cloath'd her Murderer. 1820 Keats Eve St. Agnes i, Silent was the flock in woolly fold. 1891 M. M. Dowie Girl in Karp. 214 The high perfection of all woolly occupations.

  2. a. Of the nature, texture, or appearance of wool; resembling wool; wool-like.

c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. cxlvii. v, Snowes woolly locks by him wide scatt'red are. 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. ii. iii. 34 My fleece of Woolly haire. 1597 Gerarde Herbal i. lxxiii. 106 Called..in Latine Laniferus, bicause of his abundance of woolly flockes, wherewith the whole plant is in euerie part full fraughted. 1652 Benlowes Theophila iii. iii, The woolly-curdled Clouds. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 18 June 1657, Its haire was woolly like a lamb. 1708 J. Philips Cyder ii. 186 O, may'st Thou often see Thy Furrows whiten'd by the woolly Rain [cf. ὕδωρ ἐριῶδες], Nutricious! 1726 Pope Odyss. xix. 280 Short woolly curls o'erfleec'd his bending head. 1801 Shaw Gen. Zool. II. 91 Its fur..is of a woolly nature. 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. the Mast xiii. 31 Coarse black hair, but not wooly, like the negroes. 1856 Geo. Eliot Scenes Clerical Life, Amos Barton ii, The sky had the white woolly look that portends snow. 1902 Words of Eye-witness 53 A puff of woolly smoke in the air.

  b. Having a soft and clinging texture; said esp. of edible things which are consequently unpleasant to the palate; also of the surface of a road.

1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. ii. 117 The Fruit..is pretty sweet but woolly [orig. cotonneux]. 1829 Sporting Mag. XXIII. 416 He..has a pair of leaders ready when the roads run woolly. 1849 D. J. Browne Amer. Poultry Yd. (1855) 207 Barley..is apt to render the flesh [of poultry] insipid, and woolly. 1854 Poultry Chron. I. 619 She has found the eggs of Spanish fowls eat woolly. 1862 G. J. Whyte-Melville Inside Bar! ix. 345 Time's short,..roads woolly, and whip⁓cord scarce. 1874 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 497 The pulp soon assumes a spongy appearance, technically known as ‘woolly’. 1882 Garden 18 Mar. 176/2 Turnips have become all tops, and..are just getting into the woolly stage.

  3. a. Having a natural covering of wool, wool-bearing.

1596 Shakes. Merch. V. i. iii. 84 When the worke of generation was Betweene these woolly breeders in the act. 1697 Dryden æneis iii. 844 Like him in Caves they shut their woolly Sheep. 1725 Pope Odyss. xii. 319 Then suddenly was heard..To low the ox, to bleat the woolly train. 1788 Picken Poems 104 Twall score o' sheep..sal be thine, O' ooy sheep, the fattest o' the plain. 1860 G. H. Kingsley in Galton Vac. Tour. 139 [The colly dog] is jumping from one woolly back to another, intent on singling out the one which has been indicated to him.

  b. Having hair resembling wool: applied esp. (depreciatingly) to Blacks of African origin or descent (= woolly-haired or -headed).

1767 Carteret in Hawkesw. Voy. (1773) I. 568 Two of the natives..were black, with woolly heads. 1812 Mrs. Barbauld 1811, 166 Streets, where the turban'd Moslem, bearded Jew, And woolly Afric, met the brown Hindu. 1881 M. E. Braddon Asph. xxiv, He had eaten pemmican, and ridden a woolly horse. 1886 W. J. Tucker E. Europe 351 It was a large, woolly poodle, snowy white.

  c. In specific names of animals, often rendering L. lanatus, laniger.
  woolly bear, (a) colloq. (esp. children's), also dial. a hairy caterpillar; also spec. the larva of the carpet beetle; freq. attrib.; (b) Mil. slang (see quots.); woolly boy, a large hairy caterpillar, esp. the larva of the tiger-moth. woolly mammoth = mammoth n. 1; woolly worm U.S., a hairy caterpillar.

1781 Pennant Hist. Quadr. I. 213 Woolly Maucauco. 1793 Ibid. (ed. 3) II. 196 Woolly Rat. 1805 Dorothy Wordsworth Jrnl. 7 Nov., Like an immense caterpillar, such as, when we were children, we used to call Woolly Boys, from their hairy coat. 1842 Loudon Suburban Hort. 551 The pear..is seldom affected with the woolly aphis. 1863 Wood Illustr. Nat. Hist. III. 535 Its [sc. the Tiger-moth's] caterpillar is..familiar under the name of Woolly Bear. Ibid. 598 Fig., Woolly crab, Dorippe lanata. 1877 Cassell's Nat. Hist. I. 171 The Woolly Monkeys, Lagothrix. Ibid. 221 The Woolly Lemur—The Avahi. Indris laniger. 1878 Ibid. II. 333 Rhinoceros trichorhinus, or the Woolly Rhinoceros. 1909 Webster, Wooly worm, the larva of any sawfly that covers itself with a white woolly secretion. 1911 E. Ferber Dawn O'Hara ii. 19 I'd eat wooly worms if I thought they might benefit me. 1915 War Illustr. 31 July 546/2 The German high-explosive shell, known to our men by the nickname of the ‘Woolly Bear’,..detonates with a cloud of thick white smoke. 1918 H. W. McBride Emma Gees 135 ‘Woolly Bear’ is the name given to a large, high explosive shell, with a time fuse, which bursts overhead, giving out a dense black smoke. 1923 Kipling Irish Guards in Gt. War II. 82 They were drenched with a five hours' bombardment of 4.2's and ‘woolly bears’. 1933 A. S. Romer Vertebr. Paleontol. xix. 376 The woolly mammoth was a form adapted to cold climates. 1940 R. G. Russell 101st Field Artillery 1917–19 94 A German 150-millimetre battery fired ‘woolly bears’, time-fuse shells, which burst too high to do any harm. 1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Nov. 478/3 The most common enemy of cinerarias in New Zealand is the ‘woolly-bear’ caterpillar, the larva of the magpie moth. 1951 Good Housek. Home Encycl. 324/2 Woolly bear. This is the grub of a small beetle which..congregates in hot airing cupboards. 1961 Woolly bear [see carpet beetle s.v. carpet n. 5]. 1969 Bennison & Wright Geol. Hist. Brit. Isles xvi. 359 The presence of either the woolly mammoth or the reindeer does not necessarily indicate an arctic climate. 1972 E. Wigginton Foxfire Bk. 209 The woolly worm tells of a bad winter if: there are a lot of them crawling about. 1974 A. Dillard Pilgrim at Tinker Creek xiv. 247 Woolly bears, those orange-and-black-banded furry caterpillars of the Isabella moth, were on the move. 1976 Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 16 May 6/1 The woolly mammoth..roamed the tundra areas. 1980 Blair & Ketchum's Country Jrnl. Oct. 28/2 October is the month when the woolly bear caterpillar, sometimes called a fuzzy-wuzzy or woolly worm, can be seen crossing country roads. 1983 Listener 27 Oct. 16/3 Our wall-to wall carpets attract the ‘woolly bear’ grubs of the carpet beetle.

  d. wild and woolly, orig. applied to the Far West (west n.¹ 3 b) of the United States of America on account of its rude and uncivilized character; hence gen. barbarous, lacking culture. Also transf., and as woolly simply.

1884 A. J. Sowell Rangers & Pioneers of Texas xi. 330 Occasionally, in some Western village, you will hear a voice ring out on the night air..‘Wild and woolly’,..and then you may expect a few shots from a revolver. It is a cowboy out on a little spree. 1891 A. Welcker Tales of the ‘Wild & Woolly West’ Publishers' Note, Woolly..seems to refer to the uncivilized—untamed—hair outside—wool still in the sheepskin coat—condition of the Western Pioneers. 1891 M. E. Ryan Told in Hills iii. iv. 191 Let us ‘move our freight’, ‘hit the breeze’, or any other term of the woolly West that means action. 1894 Westm. Gaz. 30 Aug. 2/1 How many Indians did you kill? Now, Cappen, I want something wild and woolly. 1907 S. E. White Arizona Nights viii. 130 ‘Who's your woolly friend’, the shiny Jew asks of the girls. 1940 R. S. Lambert Ariel & All his Quality viii. 197 [They] looked with scepticism upon a plan which they regarded as wild and woolly.

  † e. = woollen a. 1 c. Obs. rare.

1631 Dekker Match Mee ii. D 1 b, Thankes vengeance; thou at last art come (Tho with wolly feet).

  4. a. Of parts of plants: Covered with a pubescence resembling wool; downy, lanate, tomentose.

1578 Lyte Dodoens i. lxxiv. 124 Aethiopis hath great brode woolly leaues. 1616 B. Jonson Forest ii, The blushing Apricot, and woolly Peach. 1697 Dryden æneis xii. 611 Rough is the Stem, which woolly Leafs surround. 1731 Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Abutilon, The large-leav'd American Abutilon, with woolly Stalks. 1845 Browning Lost Mistress ii, The leaf-buds on the Vine are woolly. 1870 Hooker Stud. Flora 53 Githago segetum..Calyx woolly.

  b. In specific names of plants, often rendering L. lanatus or tomentosus.
  woolly butt [butt n.³ 4], an Australian name for species of Eucalyptus, esp. E. longifolia.

1597 Gerarde Herbal i. lxxiii. 106 Bulbus Eriophorus, Woolly Iacint. Ibid. ii. cclix. 634 We may call it Mullein of æthiopia, or woolly Mullein. 1650 [W. Howe] Phytol. Brit. 61 Hypericum tomentosum,..Lobells Woolly S. Iohns⁓wort. 1830 J. D. Maycock Flora Barbadensis 294 Phaseolus Mungo..Woolly-Pyroe. 1857 Anne Pratt Flower. Pl. V. 111 Salix lanata..Woolly Broad-leaved Willow. 1862 Internat. Exhib., Catal. Products Queensld. 25 Eucalyptus sp... Woolly Butt. 1889 J. H. Maiden Usef. Pl. Australia 524 ‘Woolly Gum’ of Berrima..This is the smooth-barked variety of Eucalyptus Stuartiana. 1912 Contemp. Rev. Aug. 247 Giant woolly-butt forests.

  5. gen. Having a wool-like texture, surface, or covering.

1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) II. 27 The nativo [nitre] is generally acicular or woolly. 1914 C. Mackenzie Sinister St. iii. xv, The golf-bag..woolly now with the accumulated mildew of neglect.

  6. transf. and fig. Lacking in definiteness or incisiveness; ‘muzzy’; (of the mind, etc.) confused and hazy; (of painting, etc.) lacking in clearness or definition; (of sound, etc.) dull and indistinct.

1815 Sporting Mag. XLVI. 54 It [sc. a picture] looks woolly, undecided in shapes. 1839 Chatto & Jackson Wood Engraving 711 Some of the chiaro-scuros..seem too soft and woolly. 1864 Yates Broken to Harness I. viii. 146 The daughter of old Dunkel..was a little woolly. 1865 Hawker in Life (1905) 518 Pusey's woolly mind appears to cling to him [sc. Gladstone]. 1872 Geo. Eliot Middlem. xxxv. II. 198, ‘I suppose you know..’ said Mrs. Waule, in she lowest of her woolly tones. 1874 L. Carr Jud. Gwynne v, The farm-servants..lost in woolly wonder. 1878 Lockyer Stargazing 354 Except on the finest of nights the stars..appear woolly. 1879 G. Macdonald Sir Gibbie xix, ‘That is not a bad remark, Joseph,’ replied the laird, with woolly condescension. 1881 Stevenson Virg. Puerisque, Some Portraits by Raeburn (1905) 142 Dugald Stewart's woolly and evasive periods. 1884 Bazaar 26 Dec. 681/3 A drawing to look into, but rather woolly at a few paces off. 1895 M. Kingsley W. Africa 572 The performance..growing woollier and woollier in tone, and then dying out in sleep. 1897 Graphic Christmas No. 9 The stiff woolly piano.

  7. Comb., as woolly-butted (butt n.³ 4), woolly-coated, woolly-haired, woolly-leaved, woolly-looking, woolly-minded (hence woolly-mindedness), woolly-pated, woolly-tailed, woolly-witted adjs.

1843 J. Backhouse Narr. Visit Austral. Col. 445 The Gum-trees..are of several species. One called here, the *Woolly-butted Gum, seems identical with the Black-butted Gum of Tasmania.

1852 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour (1893) 341 A lank, *woolly-coated weed [sc. a horse].

1791 Boswell Johnson 3 June an. 1781, Lord Monboddo's notion, that the ancient Egyptians..were not only black, but *woolly-haired. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xii, Miss Swartz, the woolly-haired young heiress from St. Kitt's. 1868 Lyell Princ. Geol. iii. xlvii. (ed. 10) II. 563 The..woolly-haired rhinoceros.

1822 Hortus Anglicus II. 380 Inula Suaveolens. *Woolly-leaved Inula. 1859 W. S. Coleman Woodlands (1862) 128 The Woolly-leaved Rose (Rosa tomentosa).

1881 Cassell's Encycl. Dict., Breislakite.., a *woolly-looking variety of aluminous pyroxene.

1898 Daily News 8 Nov. 5/4 There are plenty of such *woolly-minded men in high places.

1923 Blackw. Mag. May 598/2 The Don, with much alacrity and *woolly-mindedness,..proceeded to ransack all the lockers.

1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 18 A comely well Limb'd Person, though a *Woolly-pated Coffery.

1848 tr. Hoffmeister's Trav. Ceylon etc. x. 362 *Woolly-tailed Yak ox.

1927 Observer 6 Nov. 15/1 The managerial attitude towards producers is at present *woolly-witted. 1949 St. J. Ervine Craigavon ii. lvii. 273 That woolly-witted insurrectionist.

  B. n.
  1. A woollen garment or covering; now esp. pl., garments or wraps knitted of (fleecy) wool. winter woollies, warm underwear (not necessarily of wool); freq. joc. Also fig.

1865 Slang Dict., Woolly, a blanket. 1899 19th Cent. Aug. 283 ‘Granny the Thimbleman’..knits woollies for the ‘quality’. 1916 Contemp. Rev. Oct. 514 note, Flannel shirts..and woollies of all sorts for the wounded soldiers. 1919 Blackw. Mag. Feb. 148/2 Some thin underclothing and a ‘woolley’ in addition to the spare shirt and socks. 1926 Wodehouse Heart of Goof vi. 194 His mother had bought him a new set of winter woollies which felt like horsehair. 1933 Dylan Thomas Sel. Lett. (1966) 24 Catch him [sc. Wordsworth].. walking the hills with a daffodil pressed to his lips, and his winter woollies tickling his chest. 1964 Observer 13 Sept. 11/3 If we wear the winter woollies of traditional trade unionism against the hot sun of automation, we may sweat it out instead of thinking it out. 1974 Nature 18 Oct. 569/1 The dinosaurs' unsatisfied need was not so much for laxatives as for winter woollies!

  2. A sheep; esp. (Austral. and N.Z.) one before shearing. U.S., Austral., and N.Z. colloq.

1910 J. G. Neihardt River & I iii. 92 In Scotland when a feller sees a sheepman coming down the road with his sheep, he says: ‘Behold the gentle shepherd with his fleecy flock!’.. In Montana, that same feller says..‘Look at that crazy blankety-blank with his woolies!’ 1930 Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Apr. 23/1 We curse the stubborn woollies..as the sweating shearers tussle. 1935 H. Davis Honey in Horn xi. 162 She had a little short⁓bodied guitar of the kind that Mexican sheep herders used to carry around behind their saddles to entertain the woolies with. 1949 F. Sargeson I saw It in my Dream ii. xiii. 111 White dots that you could tell were both sheep and lambs; and they were so white it was easy to tell that they weren't woollies any more. 1972 P. Newton Sheep Thief vi. 48 The biggest proportion proved to be Totara sheep of mixed ages, three of them woollies.

  3. [Cf. wolly.] A uniformed policeman. slang.

1965 R. E. Ridgway in B. Wannan Fair Go, Spinner ii. 66 Later on, as the station expanded and more ‘woollies’ were added, the shed grew accordingly. 1975 Listener 6 Feb. 163/2 Sir Robert Mark{ddd}saw its [sc. the CID's] members behaving as if they could walk on water, and looking down on the ‘woollies’ who had to plod the beat in uniform. 1978 ‘B. Graeme’ Double Trouble xv. 191 One of the woollies blew his whistle. 1984 Private Eye 20 Apr. 6/2 A small army of ‘Woollies’—CID slang for uniformed officers—were summoned.

Oxford English Dictionary