Wool

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /wÊŠl/
• Rhymes: -ÊŠl

Origin

From Middle English wolle, from Old English wull, from Proto-Germanic *wullō (compare Dutch wol, German Wolle, Norwegian ull), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂ (compare Welsh gwlân, Latin lāna, Lithuanian vìlna, Russian волос, Bulgarian влас, Albanian lesh ("wool, hair, fleece")).

Full definition of wool

Noun

1. The hair of the sheep, llama and some other ruminants.
• 2006, Nigel Guy Wilson, Ancient Greece, page 692The 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.
• 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 223The groundsels have leaves covered in wool for insulation, 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.
• Shakespearewool of bat and tongue of dog

Coordinate terms

• (hair of sheep) goathair, horsehair, qiviut

Hyponyms

• (cloth or yarn) felt, tweed, worsted

Derived terms