▪ I. woold, n.
(wuːld)
Forms: 7 wolde, would, 9 woold.
[Related to next.]
a. Naut. = woolding. b. attrib. in woold cord, woold rope (cf. WFlem. oelkorde): binding cord or rope.
| 1628 Toke (Kent) Estate Accts. lf. 115 (MS.) For making 16 lbs of hempe into a wolde rope. 4/-. 1639 Ibid. lf. 202 A payer of would ropps. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. xv. (Roxb.) 43/1 The Would or wouldings of the mast or yard: is the ropes about them to keep on a fish. 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 775 [Bundles of weld plants] are tied up by a string made for the purpose, and sold under the title of woold cord. |
▪ II. woold, v.
(wuːld)
Forms: α. 7 woll (pa. tense and pa. pple. wolled, woolled), 9 wool; β. 7– would, 8– woold (9 wowld, wold).
[The late appearance of this word suggests that it is a back-formation from woolding (q.v.), but it was probably a late ME. adoption of MLG. wolen, wölen (LG. wölen, pa. pple. wöld), MDu. woelen ‘premere..constringere, torquere’ (Kilian), Du. woelen to woold (whence G. wuhlen, wulen, Da. vule), also Du. bewoelen (G. bewuhlen), Flem. woeln, oelin to bind round with cord or rope, WFris. woelje to wind. (Further relations are uncertain.) The infinitive forms would, woold appear to be due to the influence of the pa. tense and pple.]
trans. (Naut.) To wind rope or chain round (a mast or the like) to strengthen it where it is broken or where (being made of two or more pieces) it is fished or scarfed. Also said of the rope.
| α 1616 R. Cocks Diary (Hakl. Soc.) I. 96 The master sent hym to tell me the mast was wolled. 1622 R. Hawkins Voy S. Sea xxxvi. 88 Wee woolled the two byghtes to the shanke. Ibid. lxi. 147 In fishing and wolling our mastes and yards. 1674 J. Josselyn Two Voy. 5 We found the head of our mainmast..shivered and the fore-top-mast crackt; So they wolled them both. |
| β a 1625 H. Manwayring Sea-man's Dict. (1644) 116 To Would: or Woulding is to bind Roapes about any Mast, yard, or the like, to keepe on a fish, or somewhat to strengthen it. 1691 T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 35 With her whole Body woulded about with Hawsers for preventing her very sides falling out. 1730 W. Wriglesworth MS. Log-bk. of the ‘Lyell’ 30 Oct., Yesterday in the afternoon stowed the Lazaretta, and this morning Woolded the Main Mast. 1750 [see woolding 1 b]. 1804 Nelson 27 Aug. in Nicolas Disp. (1846) VI. 172 You will use every dispatch in woolding and securing the foremast. 1837 Marryat Perc. Keene xx, Our main-mast had received so many shots, that we were obliged to wold it for its support. |
b. gen. To wrap or bind round.
| 1775 Romans Florida App. 65 Keeping your lead going, till you come on soundings so soft that the lead will bring none of the mud up, unless it be woolded with canvas. 1823 [see woolder]. 1833 Marryat Peter Simple xliii, A carronade, well woulded up. 1837 E. Howard Old Commodore xiv, This love of a sail was woulded, with studied accuracy, by brilliant, black, and very narrow ribbon. 1847 Halliwell, Wool..(2) To twist a chain round a refractory horse to render him obedient. Kent. 1890 W. C. Russell Nelson 62 Her hull was kept together by cables, which frapped or woolded the fabric from stem to stern. |
▪ III. woold
obs. form of weld n.1