Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Relating to, consisting of, or covered with wool.
  • adjective Resembling wool.
  • adjective Lacking sharp detail or clarity.
  • adjective Mentally or intellectually disorganized or unclear.
  • adjective Rough, disorderly, or unrestrained.
  • noun A garment made of wool, especially an undergarment of knitted wool.
  • noun Australian A sheep.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Con sisting of wool; fleecy: as, the woolly coat of the sheep, of a young seal, etc.
  • Resembling wool; exhibiting woolliness; having the appearance of wool: as, woolly hair; woolly clouds.
  • Clothed or covered with wool, or something like it; pubescent; flocculent.
  • In hot., covered with a pubescence of long and soft hairs like wool; lanate; tomentose.

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

  • adjective Consisting of wool.
  • adjective Resembling wool; of the nature of wool.
  • adjective Clothed with wool.
  • adjective (Bot.) Clothed with a fine, curly pubescence resembling wool.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) the hairy larva of several species of bombycid moths. The most common species in the United States are the salt-marsh caterpillar (see under Salt), the black and red woolly bear, or larva of the Isabella moth (see Illust., under Isabella Moth), and the yellow woolly bear, or larva of the American ermine moth (Spilosoma Virginica).
  • adjective (Bot.) an Australian tree (Eucalyptus longifolia), so named because of its fibrous bark.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) a plant louse (Schizoneura lanigera syn Erisoma lanigera) which is often very injurious to the apple tree. It is covered with a dense coat of white filaments somewhat resembling fine wool or cotton. In exists in two forms, one of which infests the roots, the other the branches. See Illust. under Blight.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) the mongoose lemur.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) a long-tailed lemur (Indris laniger) native of Madagascar, having fur somewhat like wool; -- called also avahi, and woolly lemur.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) any South American monkey of the genus Lagothrix, as the caparro.
  • adjective (Paleon.) an extinct rhinoceros (Rhinoceros tichorhinus) which inhabited the arctic regions, and was covered with a dense coat of woolly hair. It has been found frozen in the ice of Siberia, with the flesh and hair well preserved.

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

  • adjective Made of wool.
  • adjective Having a thick, soft texture, as if made of wool.
  • adjective figuratively Of thinking, principles, etc, based on emotion rather than logic.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective covered with dense cottony hairs or hairlike filaments
  • adjective having a fluffy character or appearance
  • adjective covered with dense often matted or curly hairs
  • adjective confused and vague; used especially of thinking

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From wool +‎ -y.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word woolly.

Examples

  • Brenden wants a two-year moratorium on relocating bison until state officials write a management plan for what he calls "woolly tanks" that can wreak havoc on crops and land.

    The Seattle Times 2011

  • Davies 'piece was not an exercise in woolly thinking, calculated to cast the net of inclusivity as wide as possible by purporting to dissolve the hard distinction between affirming God's existence and denying it.

    Philosophy 2009

  • Davies 'piece was not an exercise in woolly thinking, calculated to cast the net of inclusivity as wide as possible by purporting to dissolve the hard distinction between affirming God's existence and denying it.

    Saints 2009

  • Davies 'piece was not an exercise in woolly thinking, calculated to cast the net of inclusivity as wide as possible by purporting to dissolve the hard distinction between affirming God's existence and denying it.

    Apologetics 2009

  • The brown and yellow larvae are sometimes called woolly bears because of their hairy appearance and their habit of eating wool.

    Homepage 2010

  • And hemlocks are being killed by an organism called woolly adelgid, not woody adelgid.

    Environment: Troubled Time for Trees 2007

  • And hemlocks are being killed by an organism called woolly adelgid, not woody adelgid.

    Letters to the Magazine 2007

  • He therefore purchased articles that even in England would be called woolly and comfortable.

    Khartoum Campaign, 1898 or the Re-Conquest of the Soudan Bennet Burleigh

  • It's still audible - she struggles sometimes with the "d" in "Woody," so that it sounds like "woolly" - but it has certainly mellowed since the days when she first went to Hollywood and had to learn her lines for The Hi-Lo Country phonetically, never really understanding a word she was saying.

    Taipei Times 2009

  • Other inhabitants include the endangered mountain tapir (often called the woolly tapir), the red-brocket deer, and the spectacled bear.

    EcoEarth.Info Environment RSS Newsfeed 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "Woolly" describes a forest stand so thick with underbrush that it is difficult to walk through.

    December 11, 2007

  • Australian slang - the city of Wollongong.

    April 16, 2008