ˈwool-ˌgathering, vbl. n. and gerund.
1. The action of gathering fragments of wool torn from sheep by bushes, etc.
| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 424 b, Your Diuinitie raungeth very much at randon, as if it were strayed and runnyng in some wildernes a wollgatheryng. 1878 E. Peacock in Archaeologia XLVI. 384 Wool-gathering yet goes on in many places even on enclosed lands. 1889 H. Johnston Chron. Glenbuckie xxii. 261, I got it by working for it—hard 'oo'-gathering and hard spinning. |
2. In fig. phr. to go (run, be) wool-gathering, formerly always a (or † on, † of) wool-gathering: to indulge in wandering fancies or purposeless thinking; to be in a dreamy or absent-minded state: said esp. of ‘the wits’, etc. Similarly, to send or set (a) wool-gathering.
| 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. ii. 59 Hackyng & hemmyng as though our wittes and our senses were a woll gatheryng. 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 652 Their mindes goe a wool-gathering. 1579 Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 42 To busy the wittes of his people, for running a woolgathering. 1601 W. Percy Cuckqueanes & Cuckolds Errants iv. i. (Roxb.) 46 My Husband..[had] so drawne mee, after him, on woole-gathering, in search of him, as now you see mee. 1607 R. C[arew] tr. Estienne's World of Wonders xxxix. 349 This gentle Frier (whose wit was not gone of wool⁓gathering). 1625 Bp. R. Montagu App. Cæsar 23 If you read them, but marked them not, your wits went on wooll-gathering at that instant. 1652 Gaule Magastrom. 41 He..sends his father-in-law almost a wooll-gathering. 1748 Richardson Clarissa VII. 326 That my wits may not be sent a wooll⁓gathering. 1796 Girlh. M. J. Holroyd (1896) 386, I suppose you thought my Brains were Wool gathering! 1845 Carlyle Cromwell (1873) I. i. 7 Sacred Poets have..gone a woolgathering after ‘Ideals’ and suchlike. 1890 J. Hatton By Order of Czar ii. xii, You are wool-gathering a little, eh? |
b. Hence, Indulgence in idle imagining or aimless speculation.
| 1607 Middleton Fam. Love v. iii, Ha' you summoned your wits from wool-gathering? 1824 Lady Granville Lett. (1894) I. 279 A great deal of wool-gathering about what it will bring. 1859 Geo. Eliot A. Bede xxvii, There never was such a chap for wool-gathering. 1893 Patmore Religio Poetæ (1898) 90 The crazy wool-gathering which is ordinarily regarded as thought. |
So ˈwool-ˌgathering a., indulging in wandering thoughts or idle fancies.
| 1850 Mrs. Stowe in Life (1889) 140 If my wits are somewhat wool-gathering and unsettled. 1859 Geo. Eliot A. Bede i, It was Seth Bede, as was allays a wool-gathering chap. 1893 E. H. Barker Wand. Southern Waters 259 At those moments when the wool-gathering mind has to be hurried back and fixed upon the sacredness of the ritual. |