Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act of gathering wool: usually applied figuratively to the indulgence of idle fancies or to any foolish or fruitless pursuit. The allusion is probably to the practice of gathering the tufts of wool to be found on bushes and hedges, necessitating much wandering to little purpose.
Wiktionary
- n. Gathering fragments of wool torn from sheep by bushes, etc.
- n. Indulging in idle fancies or daydreams.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Indulging in a vagrant or idle exercise of the imagination; roaming upon a fruitless quest; idly fanciful.
- n. Indulgence in idle imagination; a foolish or useless pursuit or design.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an idle indulgence in fantasy
- adj. dreamy in mood or nature
Examples
“Perpetual regret well describes the mood of the speakers in "Great House," and at times their stories recede into sloughs of forlorn woolgathering.”
“Like woolgathering and other empty pursuits, wistful might-have-beens had no place in my mind.”
“People my age or not too much younger may remember times as a child -- and even later -- when they stared aimlessly at sunlight playing on trees, or lay on their backs looking up at clouds or otherwise engaged in that hopelessly antediluvian activity -- woolgathering.”
The Huffington Post: Stanton Peele: Solitude: Alone or on the iPhone
“ But my publisher was a benighted occupant of that quotidian realm where these things have been forgotten; all he and anyone else cares about these days isrelevantfacts, not the useless trivia I had accumulated over a lifetime of woolgathering.”
“Idea sessions can easily dissolve into wandering and woolgathering.”
“She snorted, angry at woolgathering, knowing that among the younger ones it would appear as senility.”
“A gentle buzzing at the base of his skull reminded him that his woolgathering was happening on company time.”
365 tomorrows » 2008 » February : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day
“Just woolgathering, really wanted to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas, and may your miles be as happy as mine.”
“These two ur-WASP gentlemen were tossing around what might be the contents of the eventual anthology GREAT ESQUIRE FICTION, and it was sort of wonderful to watch them and then it was sort of excruciating, as there was a lot of fumbling around and opinions that never yielded any concrete result and pointless general woolgathering.”
An Amazon.com Books Blog featuring news, reviews, interviews and guest author blogs.
“I can speak with authority that I often went woolgathering over Alfric2s untimely death.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘woolgathering’.
dmcleod0914 "He chivalrously covered my position as well as his own, so my woolgathering was only interrupted when it was my turn to serve; my team ducked warily out of the way everytime I as up"- Twilight, Stephanie Meyer, pg.51 Oct 27, 2010
chained_bear I love that this word we use synonymously for "lollygagging" comes from the actual practice of picking tufts of wool off of bushes where wandering sheep left them. I imagine if tasked with that job, one might do quite a bit of mental woolgathering as well. Cool word, cool history! Feb 13, 2007