Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The package in which wool was in former times done up for transportation and sale; specifically, a bundle or bale weighing 240 pounds.
  • noun In heraldry, a bearing representing a sort of cushion usually having four tufts at the corners.
  • noun Cirrocumulus cloud; a cloud made up of rolled masses, with a fleecy appearance.
  • noun A concretionary mass of crystalline limestone in the beds of earthy and impure calcareous rock of which the Wenlock limestone is made up. These concretionary masses vary in size from a few inches up to 80 feet in diameter. Also called ballstone

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A pack or bag of wool weighing two hundred and forty pounds.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A bag of wool, traditionally weighing 240 pounds.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

wool +‎ pack

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Examples

  • It is as if the final wrought iron bang is the signal for the seams of the woolpack above us to be ripped open, and ablution to fall.

    Water Witches Chris Bohjalian 1995

  • Church of S. Caterina, and carved their arms, a woolpack fastened with ropes, over the door.

    Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa With Sixteen Illustrations In Colour By William Parkinson And Sixteen Other Illustrations, Second Edition Edward Hutton 1922

  • These are the 'woolpack clouds,' which, in summer time, throw deep shadows on the grass.

    The Boy with the U. S. Weather Men Francis Rolt-Wheeler 1918

  • John Fortey, who rebuilt the nave before he died in 1458; his brass shows him with one foot on a sheep and the other on a woolpack, and the brasses of Thomas Fortey, 'woolman', and of another unknown merchant, with a woolpack, lie near by.

    Medieval People Eileen Edna Power 1914

  • Finest of all, perhaps, are the brasses of the wool staplers, with feet resting on woolpack or sheep; but there are many other merchants too.

    Medieval People Eileen Edna Power 1914

  • They both have their feet on woolpacks, and on the son's woolpack is his merchant's mark.

    Medieval People Eileen Edna Power 1914

  • But all these excitations would, I confess, have spent their artillery in vain against the woolpack of my imagination; and after well considering the scene, I could not help looking at my companion with surprise: to me, the triumph of true genius seemed never more conspicuous, than in the construction of so interesting a poem out of such common-place materials.

    The Life of John Clare Martin, Frederick, 1830-1883 1865

  • But all these excitations would, I confess, have spent their artillery in vain against the woolpack of my imagination; and after well considering the scene, I could not help looking at my companion with surprise: to me, the triumph of true genius seemed never more conspicuous, than in the construction of so interesting a poem out of such common-place materials.

    The Life of John Clare Frederick Martin 1856

  • By these means, the storm rising in Mrs. Atkinson before was in some measure laid, at least suspended from bursting at present; but it fell afterwards upon the poor serjeant's head in a torrent, who had learned perhaps one maxim from his trade, that a cannon-ball always doth mischief in proportion to the resistance it meets with, and that nothing so effectually deadens its force as a woolpack.

    Amelia — Volume 3 Henry Fielding 1730

  • By these means, the storm rising in Mrs. Atkinson before was in some measure laid, at least suspended from bursting at present; but it fell afterwards upon the poor serjeant's head in a torrent, who had learned perhaps one maxim from his trade, that a cannon-ball always doth mischief in proportion to the resistance it meets with, and that nothing so effectually deadens its force as a woolpack.

    Amelia — Complete Henry Fielding 1730

Comments

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  • I'm waiting for some woolpack clouds so I can use this word.

    These are the 'woolpack clouds,' which, in summer time, throw deep shadows on the grass. —The Boy with the U. S. Weather Men

    May 3, 2010

  • “John Fortey, who rebuilt the nave before he died in 1458; his brass shows him with one foot on a sheep and the other on a woolpack, and the brasses of Thomas Fortey, 'woolman', and of another unknown merchant, with a woolpack, lie near by.”

    October 4, 2010