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Webster 1913 Edition


Wool

Wool

(woŏl)
,
Noun.
[OE.
wolle
,
wulle
, AS.
wull
; akin to D.
wol
, OHG.
wolla
, G.
wolle
, Icel. & Sw.
ull
, Dan.
uld
, Goth,
wulla
, Lith.
vilna
, Russ.
volna
, L.
vellus
, Skr.
ūrṇā
wool,
vṛ
to cover. √146, 287. Cf.
Flannel
,
Velvet
.]
1.
The soft and curled, or crisped, species of hair which grows on sheep and some other animals, and which in fineness sometimes approaches to fur; – chiefly applied to the fleecy coat of the sheep, which constitutes a most essential material of clothing in all cold and temperate climates.
Wool consists essentially of keratin.
2.
Short, thick hair, especially when crisped or curled.
Wool
of bat and tongue of dog.
Shakespeare
3.
(Bot.)
A sort of pubescence, or a clothing of dense, curling hairs on the surface of certain plants.
Dead pulled wool
,
wool pulled from a carcass.
Mineral wool
.
See under
Mineral
.
Philosopher’s wool
.
(Chem.)
See
Zinc oxide
, under
Zinc
.
Pulled wool
,
wool pulled from a pelt, or undressed hide.
Slag wool
.
Same as
Mineral wool
, under
Mineral
.
Wool ball
,
a ball or mass of wool.
Wool burler
,
one who removes little burs, knots, or extraneous matter, from wool, or the surface of woolen cloth.
Wool comber
.
(a)
One whose occupation is to comb wool.
(b)
A machine for combing wool.
Wool grass
(Bot.)
,
a kind of bulrush (
Scirpus Eriophorum
) with numerous clustered woolly spikes.
Wool scribbler
.
See
Woolen scribbler
, under
Woolen
,
Adj.
Wool sorter's disease
(Med.)
,
a disease, resembling malignant pustule, occurring among those who handle the wool of goats and sheep.
Wool staple
,
a city or town where wool used to be brought to the king's staple for sale.
[Eng.]
Wool stapler
.
(a)
One who deals in wool.
(b)
One who sorts wool according to its staple, or its adaptation to different manufacturing purposes.
Wool winder
,
a person employed to wind, or make up, wool into bundles to be packed for sale.

Webster 1828 Edition


Wool

WOOL

,
Noun.
[G., Gr., soft; down; L., to pull off.]
1.
That species of hair which grows on sheep and some other animals, which in fineness sometimes approaches to fur. The word generally signifies the fleecy coat of the sheep, which constitutes a most essential material of clothing in all cold and temperate climates.
2.
Short thick hair.
3.
In botany, a sort of pubescence, or a clothing o dense curling hairs on the surface of certain plants.

Definition 2024


Wool

Wool

See also: wool

English

Proper noun

Wool

  1. A village in Dorset, England.

Derived terms

wool

wool

See also: Wool

English

A sheep being sheared for its wool.

Noun

wool (usually uncountable, plural wools)

  1. The hair of the sheep, llama and some other ruminants.
    • 2006, Nigel Guy Wilson, Ancient Greece, page 692
      The sheep were caught and plucked, because shears had not yet been invented to cut the wool from the sheep's back.
  2. A cloth or yarn made from the wool of sheep.
    • 2009, January 12, “Mireya Navarro”, in It May Market Organic Alternatives, but Is Your Cleaner Really Greener?:
      Spielvogel said wet cleaning also has limitations; while it is fine for cottons and fabrics worn in warm climates, he said, it can damage heavy wools or structured clothes like suit jackets.
  3. Anything with a texture like that of wool.
    • 1975, Anthony Julian Huxley, Plant and Planet, page 223
      The groundsels have leaves covered in wool for insulation [<span title=", while some of the lobelias, like L. telekii, protect their blue, sunbird-pollinated flowers with long woolly leaf bracts so that the fully developed plant looks like some weird brush or, as Patrick Synge once described it, like a "gigantic woolly caterpillar petrified and stood on end."">…]
  4. A fine fiber obtained from the leaves of certain trees, such as firs and pines.
  5. (obsolete) Short, thick hair, especially when crisped or curled.
    • Shakespeare
      wool of bat and tongue of dog
  6. (Britain, New Zealand) yarn (including that which is made from synthetic fibers.)

Coordinate terms

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also


Cornish

Noun

wool

  1. Soft mutation of gool.