wool

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. 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. n. A material or garment made of this hair.
3. n. The furry hair of some insect larvae, such as the caterpillar.
4. n. A filamentous or fibrous covering or substance suggestive of the texture of true wool.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. See the extract.
2. n. The fine, soft, curly hair which forms the fleece or fleecy coat of the sheep and some other animals, as the goat and alpaca, in fineness approaching fur. The wool or fleece of the sheep furnishes the most important material for clothing in all cold and temperate climates. The felting property from which wool derives its chief value, and which is its special distinction from hair, depends in part upon the kinks in the shaft or fiber, but mainly upon the scales with which the surface is imbricated. These scales are minute, from about 2,000 to nearly 4,000 to the inch, and whorled about the stem in verticils; the stem itself is extremely slender, being less than one thousandth of an inch in diameter. Wool is kept soft and pliable by the wool-oil, commonly called yolk. In different animals wool shades by imperceptible degrees into hair; and that of the sheep simply represents an extreme case of the most desirable qualities', namely, fineness, kinkiness, and scaliness of the fiber, together with its length, strength, and luster, and the copiousness of the fleece, which consists entirely of wool, without hair; in all of which particulars the wool of the different breeds of sheep varies to a degree. (Compare def. 2.) Wool when shorn is divided into two classes, short wool, or carding-wool, seldom exceeding a length of 3 or 4 inches, and long wool, or combing-wool, varying in length from 4 to 8 inches, each class being subdivided into a variety of sorts, according to the fineness and soundness of the staple. The finest wools are of short staple, and the coarser wools usually of long staple. Wools which unite a high degree of fineness and softness with considerable length of staple bear a high price. English-bred sheep produce a good, strong combing-wool, that of the Scotch breeds being somewhat harsher and coarser. The finest carding-wools were formerly exclusively obtained from Spain, the native country of the merino sheep, and at a later period extensively from Germany, where that breed had been successfully introduced and cultivated. Immense flocks of merinos are now reared in Australia, North and South America, and South Africa.
3. n. The fine, short, thick underfur or down of any animal, as distinguished from the longer and stiffer hairs which come to the surface of the pelage. Most hairy animals have at least two coats, one of long and comparatively straight, stout, stiff hairs, the other of wool. See underfur.
4. n. The short, crisp, curly or kinky hair of the head of some persons, as negroes; humorously, the hair of any person's head.
5. n. Any light, downy, fleecy, or flocculent sub stance resembling wool. The dense furry or woolly coat of many insects, as the pubescence covering the moths known as millers, that on various caterpillars', that spun by various larvæ for a case or cocoon, etc. Secretions of various insects are very nicely graded from a solid waxy consistency through various frothy states to a light dry fleecy condition resembling wool: see wax-insect, spittle-insect, and woolly aphis (under woolly). In another large class of cases the spun-out secretion is gossamer, cobweb, or true silk. See these words, and silkworm.
6. To pull the hair of, in sport or anger; rumple or tousle the hair of.

Wiktionary

1. n. The hair of the sheep, llama and some other ruminants.
2. n. A cloth or yarn made from the wool of sheep.
3. n. Anything with a texture like that of wool.
4. adj. this sense?) Made of wool.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The soft and curled, or crisped, species of hair which grows on sheep and some other animals, and which in fineness sometimes approaches to fur; -- chiefly applied to the fleecy coat of the sheep, which constitutes a most essential material of clothing in all cold and temperate climates.
2. n. Short, thick hair, especially when crisped or curled.
3. n. (Bot.) A sort of pubescence, or a clothing of dense, curling hairs on the surface of certain plants.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. fiber sheared from animals (such as sheep) and twisted into yarn for weaving
2. n. a fabric made from the hair of sheep
3. n. outer coat of especially sheep and yaks