wool

 

From Middle English wolle, from Old English wull, from Proto-West Germanic *wullu, from Proto-Germanic *wullō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂.

The vowel development u → o → oo is purely graphical. Modern English generally avoids the string ‹wu› in favour of ‹wo›, and the resulting woll was then altered to wool (as supposedly better representing the pronunciation).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /wʊl/
• (General American) enPR: wo͝ol, IPA^(key): /wʊl/, [wʊ̠ɫ], [wɫ̩], [wəl]

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /wʉl/
• Rhymes: -ʊl

wool (usually uncountable, plural wools)

2. 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.

4. A cloth or yarn made from such hair.
   • 2009 January 12, Mireya Navarro, “It May Market Organic Alternatives, but Is Your Cleaner Really Greener?”, in New York Times:

     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.

6. Anything with a fibrous texture like that of sheep's wool.

   Hyponyms: cotton wool; wood wool; mineral wool, rockwool, glass wool; wire wool, aluminum wool, brass wool, steel wool

   • 1975, Anthony Julian Huxley, Plant and Planet, page 223:

     The groundsels have leaves covered in wool for insulation […]

8. A fine fiber obtained from the leaves of certain trees, such as firs and pines.
9. (obsolete) Short, thick hair, especially when crisped or curled.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     wool of bat and tongue of dog

11. (British, New Zealand) Yarn, including that made from synthetic fibers.
13. (Liverpool, derogatory) A woolly back; a resident of a satellite town outside Liverpool, such as St Helens or Warrington. See also Yonner.
15. (slang) A marijuana cigarette or cigar laced with crack cocaine.

    Synonyms: wooler, woolie

    • 1991 March 29, “Slow Down” (0:25 from the start), in One for All‎^[1], performed by Brand Nubian:

      The object of your affection is the treetop connection / Where basically you love to smoke your wools

    • 2003 June 24, “Sabotage” (0:40 from the start), in The Ownerz‎^[2], performed by Gang Starr:

      He rocked Caesar's chains, he pushed Caesar's Range / Smokin' mad wools all day, with Caesar's change

    • 2012, Chris Berdik, Mind Over Mind: The Surprising Power of Expectations, New York, N.Y.: Current, →ISBN, page 149:

      Lopez said the shooter's name was Lou, known on the street as Wool Lou, because he sold "wools," which were cigarettes rolled up with crack cocaine.

• (cloth or yarn): felt, tweed, worsted

• (hair of sheep): goathair, horsehair, qiviut

• → Japanese: ウール (ūru)

• “wool”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “wool”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “wool”, in The Right Rhymes, launched 2013.

•   wool on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

wool

1. Soft mutation of gool.

wool

1. hole