wool

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South American and Australian wool -- wool, wool, wool everywhere!

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Definitions (57)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun The dense, soft, often curly hair forming the coat of sheep and certain other mammals, such as the goat and alpaca, consisting of cylindrical fibers of keratin covered by minute overlapping scales and much valued as a textile fabric.
  2. noun A material or garment made of this hair.
  3. noun The furry hair of some insect larvae, such as the caterpillar.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (49)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

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Examples (50)

  • Llama wool is a near perfect fleece for helmet liners that wicks moisture, captures heat and is lightweight. “It is a very large network of knitters. —  News from www.pantagraph.com
  • Make an Easter lamb with real wool from a National Trust sheep to take home. —  Latest Isle of Wight News
  • Scoured wool is tub washed with warm water and soap, and then thoroughly rinsed in cold water until nothing remains but the clean fiber Illustration: DEGREASING PLANT--REMOVING GREASE FROM WOOL An improved method of washing wool by hand is to have a series of tanks with pressing rollers attached to each tank: the wool is agitated by means of forks, and then passed to the pressing rollers and into each tank in succession. —  Textiles For Commercial, Industrial, and Domestic Arts Schools; Also Adapted to Those Engaged in Wholesale and Retail Dry Goods, Wool, Cotton, and Dressmaker's Trades
  • There are also the Tezzan sheep, belonging to Tripoli; the Saint Helena sheep, of the celebrated Island of Saint Helena; the Congo sheep, of Congo; and the Angolas, of the same region, famous for the quality of their wool--not to be confounded, however, with the Angora wool, which is the produce of a goat. —  Quadrupeds, What They Are and Where Found A Book of Zoology for Boys
  • His gray skin, because of its lack of pigmentation, was splotched with eczema; his wool was a dirty, yellowish white; his features were permanently distorted because of his lifelong efforts to keep the light from paining his pink eyes. —  Sacrifice
 

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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English wolle, from Old English wull.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Formerly also wooll; Scots woo; from Middle English woll, wolle, wulle, from Anglo-Saxon wull, wul = OFries. wolle, udle = D, wol = Low German wulle = Old High German wolla, Middle High German G. wolle = Icelandic ull = Swedish ull = Danish uld = Goth, wulla, wool (Teutonic *wolla, assimilated from wolna), = Old Bulgarian vlŭna = Lath, wilna = Russian volna = Latin villus, shaggy hair, vellus, a fleece, wool, = Sanskrit ūrnā, wool; literally a ‘covering,’ formed, with suffix -na, from a root seen in Sanskritvar, cover. Connection with Greek ἔριον, wool, εἰ̄ρος, wool, οὐ̄λος, woolly, shaggy, thick, etc., is doubtful.
  2. from wool, n.
 

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/wəl/
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