subs. (common).—Hair: cf. the wheezes, ‘He has no WOOL on the top of his head in the place where the WOOL ought to grow’; and ‘Keep your WOOL on’ = don’t get angry, keep quiet. As verb = to rumple or towsle the hair.
PHRASES. MORE SQUEAK THAN WOOL = more noise than substance; GREAT CRY AND LITTLE WOOL = ‘Much ado about nothing’: see CIDER; TO PULL THE WOOL OVER ONE’S EYES = to impose upon, deceive, delude, or use the PEPPER-BOX (q.v.); TO GO WOOL GATHERING = to indulge in idle fancies, act stupidly.
c. 1475. FORTESCUE [Notes and Queries, 7 S. vi. 186]. And so his hyghnes shal haue thereoff but as hadd the man that sherid is hogge, MUCHE CRYE AND LITILL WOLL.
1579. GOSSON, The Schoole of Abuse [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 605. There occurs RUN A WOOLGATHERING].
1621. BURTON, The Anatomy of Melancholy, I. ii. His wits were WOOLGATHERING as they say.
d. 1655. T. ADAMS, Works, I. 477. But if you compare his threatenings and his after affections you would say of them, as that wise man shearing his hogs: Here is a GREAT deal of cry, BUT a LITTLE WOOL.
1742–4. R. NORTH, The Life of Lord Guildford. For matter of title he thought there was MORE SQUEAK THAN WOOL. Ibid., ii. 326. The stir about the sheriff of London … was MUCH SQUEAK AND NO WOOL, but an impertinent contention to no profit.
c. 1796. WOLCOT (‘Peter Pindar’), Works, 135.
| Yet thou may’st bluster like bull-beef so big; | |
| And of thy own importance full, | |
| Exclaim, ‘GREAT CRY AND LITTLE WOOL!’ | |
| As Satan holla’d, when he shav’d the pig. |
1809. MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 201. At first there was MUCH CRY BUT LITTLE WOOL; for we had no luck at finding cullies.
1896. LILLARD, Poker Stories, 102. That bad Westerner was a bungler. I could have given him points at his own game. Nevertheless, he was clever enough to PULL THE WOOL way down OVER THE EYES of the three other men.
