[f. WOOL sb. + PACK sb.1]
1. A large bag into which a quantity of wool or of fleeces is packed for carriage or sale.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 11171. [They] Ride vpe tueye wolpakces, chapmen as hii were.
14[?]. in Krapp, Leg. St. Patrick’s Purg. (1900), 65. Stoppeng and shovyng þe felthe downe into here bodies as þe wold stoppe a wullepak.
1600. Maldon, Essex, Docts., Bundle 162, lf. 3 (MS.). ii s. of Richard Studd, collector for the woolpacks, for the profitts of his office this yeare.
1601. Weever, Mirr. Mart., D 1. In chaires of hardest oke they sate Insteede of wooll-packes.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 285/1. A Wool Pack … is a great number of Fleeces made up together in a cloth tied at the four ends.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, II. iv. There was a Fellow with a Wen in his Neck, larger than five Woolpacks.
1758. Hist. London-Bridge, 14. The Foundation of this Bridge is by the Vulgar generally believed to be laid upon Woolpacks; which Mistake probably arose from a Tax upon Wool towards its Construction.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Progr. Taste, I. 104. This wards the jokes of ev’ry kind,… As wool-packs quash the leaden ball.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xx. This coming Countess … hangs on our arms as dead a weight as a wool-pack.
1845. D. Mackenzie, Emigr. Guide Australia, 91. One man is employed in gathering the fleeces as they are shorn—another in folding them up, and handing them to a man who is pressing them into a large bag, called a wool pack, capable of containing … about 250 lbs. of wool, or about 100 average fleeces.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xxii. 568. Hempen fabrics were used for woolpacks.
† b. = WOOLSACK 2. Obs.
a. 1658. Cleveland, Epig. on People, Wks. (1687), 254. We … Call’d out a Parliament,… Which being obtain’d at last, what did they do? Even squeeze the Wool-packs, and lye snorting too.
1660. Pepys, Diary, 20 Aug. My Lord Chancellor being gone to the House of Lords, I went thither, and … there staid all the morning, seeing their manner of sitting on woolpacks, &c. which I never did before.
c. 1710. Celia Fiennes, Diary (1888), 261. These twelve judges sitt in the House of Lord[s] on wool packs.
2. transf. Something resembling a wool-pack. † a. A large mass of white water. Obs.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, Wks. (Grosart), V. 267. Boystrous woolpacks of ridged tides, came rowling in, and raught him from her.
1733. Trav. J. Massey, 36. We spy’d that which Sailors call a Wool-Pack, seemingly as big as a great Cask, within Cannon-shot of our Ship.
b. orig. wool-pack cloud: A fleecy cumulus cloud. Chiefly pl. (or collect. sing.).
1648. Earl Westmoreland, Otia Sacra (1879), 128. A day most clear;… wherein Some wool-pack Clouds in corner’s bin.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 440. The sky full of light wool-pack clouds boding no rain.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., IV. lii. 483. In the north of England, such clouds are called woolpacks.
1869. Daily News, 13 Feb., 4/6. The formation of the ordinary cumulus or woolpack cloud.
1883. Burton & Cameron, Gold Coast, I. iii. 69. The bright blue air, flecked with wool-pack.
c. pl. Masses of Wenlock limestone. local.
1848. J. Phillips, in Mem. Geol. Surv., II. I. 185. The solid masses of limestone are locally termed ‘Woolpacks.’
3. attrib., as wool-pack cloud (see 2 b); in quot. a. 1651, ? resembling a pack of sheep.
a. 1651. Cleveland, Mixt Assembly, 4. Chaos of Presbyt’ry, where Lay-men guide With the tame Woolpack Clergy by their side.
