wool

From Middle English wolle, from Old English wull, from Proto-West Germanic *wullu, from Proto-Germanic *wullō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /wʊl/
• (General American) enPR: wo͝ol, IPA^(key): /wʊl/, [wʊ̠ɫ], [wɫ̩]

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ʊl

wool (usually uncountable, plural wools)

1. The hair of the sheep, llama and some other ruminants.
   • 2006, Nigel Guy Wilson, Ancient Greece, page 692:

     The sheep were caught and plucked, because shears had not yet been invented to cut the wool from the sheep's back.

2. A cloth or yarn made from the wool of sheep.
   • 2009, January 12, “Mireya Navarro”, in It May Market Organic Alternatives, but Is Your Cleaner Really Greener?:

     Spielvogel said wet cleaning also has limitations; while it is fine for cottons and fabrics worn in warm climates, he said, it can damage heavy wools or structured clothes like suit jackets.

3. Anything with a texture like that of wool.
   • 1975, Anthony Julian Huxley, Plant and Planet, page 223:

     The groundsels have leaves covered in wool for insulation […]

4. A fine fiber obtained from the leaves of certain trees, such as firs and pines.
5. (obsolete) Short, thick hair, especially when crisped or curled.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     wool of bat and tongue of dog

6. (Britain, New Zealand) Yarn, including that made from synthetic fibers.
7. (Liverpudlian, derogatory) A resident of a satellite town outside Liverpool, such as St Helens or Warrington. See also Yonner.

• (cloth or yarn): felt, tweed, worsted

• (hair of sheep): goathair, horsehair, qiviut

• → Japanese: ウール (ūru)

• wool on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

wool

1. Soft mutation of gool.

wool

1. hole