woolly

or wool·y

[woo l-ee]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR woolly ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective, wool·li·er, wool·li·est.

consisting of wool: a woolly fleece.

resembling wool in texture or appearance: woolly hair.

clothed or covered with wool or something resembling it: a woolly caterpillar.

Botany. covered with a pubescence of long, soft hairs resembling wool.

like the rough, vigorous atmosphere of the early West in America: wild and woolly.

fuzzy; unclear; disorganized: woolly thinking.

noun, plural wool·lies.

Western U.S. a wool-bearing animal; sheep.

Usually woollies. a knitted undergarment of wool or other fiber.

any woolen garment, as a sweater.

Dialect. a dust ball.

Origin of woolly

First recorded in 1580–90; wool + -y¹

Related formswool·li·ness, noun

Regional variation note

10. See dust ball.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for woolly

furry, hairy, woolen, addled, disorganized, unclear, blurry, downy, fleecy, flocculent, soft, lanate, laniferous, lanose

Examples from the Web for woolly

Contemporary Examples of woolly

An army of Wildlings, some giants, and a woolly mammoth or two?
Team USA Goalie Tim Howard Goes Viral: All the Best Memes
Melissa Leon
July 2, 2014
Rockefeller Republicans have long gone the way of the woolly mammoth.
Tom Petri's Primary Challenge May Mark End Of Rockefeller Republicanism
Ben Jacobs
April 3, 2014
And every second belief in the world is a woolly superstition.
William H. Gass: How I Write
Noah Charney
March 13, 2013
In a typical post, she wears a crazy-looking pinafore with an outrageous collar, round-frame shades, and thick, woolly knee socks.
Meet Ophelia Horton, London’s 12-Year-Old Fashion Blogger: The New Tavi?
Tom Sykes
August 2, 2012
Did she learn from the New York 23rd District election that being a moderate Republican is a lot like being a woolly mammoth?
Next Stop, the Senate
Sally Denton
November 7, 2009

Historical Examples of woolly

Some came from the interior of Africa and had woolly hair and thick lips.
Ancient Man
Hendrik Willem van Loon
Atrotomentosus is from ater, black, and tomentum, woolly or downy.
The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise
M. E. Hard
They covered the horse all up, so that he looked for all the world like a sheep, woolly.
The Woman-Haters
Joseph C. Lincoln
The big negro looked sheepish and scratched his woolly head.
The Affair of the Brains
Anthony Gilmore
We intend testing the woolly sheep when we get settled there.
Official Report of the Niger Valley Exploring Party
Martin Robinson Delany

British Dictionary definitions for woolly

woolly

sometimes US wooly

adjective woollier or woolliest or sometimes US woolier or wooliest

consisting of, resembling, or having the nature of wool

covered or clothed in wool or something resembling it

lacking clarity or substancewoolly thinking

botany covered with long soft whitish hairswoolly stems

US recalling the rough and lawless period of the early West of America (esp in the phrase wild and woolly)

noun plural woollies or sometimes US woolies

(often plural) a garment, such as a sweater, made of wool or something similar

Western US and Australian (usually plural) an informal word for sheep

Derived Formswoollily, adverbwoolliness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012