Woolly

a. (sb.) Also 6 woolley, 7 wolly, 7, 9 wooly, 8 Sc. ooy. [f. WOOL sb. + -Y¹. Cf. (M)LG. wullig, Du., G. wollig.]

  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, trans. 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. Ibid. (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.  Ménie Muriel Dowie, Girl in Karp., 214. The high perfection of all woolly occupations.

  2.  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.  Shaks., 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. ὔδωρ 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 Cler. Life, A. Barton, ii. The sky had the white woolly look that portends snow.

1902.  [M. H. Grant], Words by an Eyewitness, 53. A puff of woolly smoke in the air.

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

1687.  A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., II. 117. The Fruit … is pretty sweet but woolly [orig. cotonneux].

1829.  Sporting Mag., XXIII. 416/1. He … always 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.  Whyte-Melville, Inside the Bar, ix. 345. Time’s short, you know, roads woolly, and whipcord scarce.

1874.  Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 497. The pulp soon assumes a spongy appearance, technically known as ‘woolly.’

1882.  Garden, 18 March, 176/2. Turnips have become all tops, and … are just getting into the woolly stage.

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

1596.  Shaks., 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. to negroes (= woolly-haired or -headed).

1767.  Carteret, in Hawkesw., Voy. (1773), I. 568. Two of the natives … were black, with woolly heads.

1812.  Mrs. Barbauld, Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, 166.

1881.  Miss Braddon, Asphodel, 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 colloq. (esp. children’s), also dial. woolly boy, a large hairy caterpillar, esp. the larva of the tiger-moth.

1781.  Pennant, Hist. Quadr., I. 213. Woolly Maucauco. Ibid. (1793), (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. Ibid. (1878), II. 333. Rhinoceros trichorhinus, or the Woolly Rhinoceros.

  d.  Wild and woolly, orig. applied to the Far West (WEST sb.¹ 3 b) of the United States of America on account of its rude and uncivilized character; hence gen. barbarous, lacking culture.

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.

1894.  Westm. Gaz., 30 Aug., 2/1. How many Indians did you kill? Now, Cappen, I want something 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.  Of parts of plants: Covered with a pubescence resembling wool; downy, lanate, tomentose.

1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, I. lxxxiv. 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 Mistr., 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 sb.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. Iohnswort.

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.  A. Dorrington, in Contemp. Rev., Aug., 247. Others bring hints of … 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. 54/2. 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 the lowest of her woolly tones.

1874.  Lisle 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.  Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 572. The performance … growing woollier and woollier in tone, and then dying out in sleep.

1897.  Graphic, Christmas No. 9. The still woolly piano.

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

1843.  J. Backhouse, Narr. Visit Austral. Col., 445. The Gum-trees upon it [the Mittagong Range] 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 Suaveolers. *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., 5/5. 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, and ignoring the precise directions, 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.  trans. Hoffmeister’s Trav. Ceylon, etc. x. 362. *Woolly-tailed Yak ox.

  B.  sb. A woollen garment or covering; now esp. pl., garments or wraps knitted of (fleecy) wool.

1865.  Slang Dict., Woolly, a blanket.

1899.  Mrs. Orman Cooper, in 19th Cent., Aug., 283. She [‘Granny the Thimbleman’] knits woollies for the ‘quality.’

1916.  Contemp. Rev., Oct., 514, note. Any gifts of flannel shirts, dressing-gowns, slippers, and woollies of all sorts for the wounded soldiers would be most gratefully received.

1919.  Capts. Johnston & Yearsley, in Blackw. Mag., Feb., 148/2. Some of us carried some thin underclothing and a ‘woolley’ in addition to the spare shirt and socks.