woolly
Americanadjective
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consisting of wool.
a woolly fleece.
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resembling wool in texture or appearance.
woolly hair.
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clothed or covered with wool or something resembling it.
a woolly caterpillar.
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Botany. covered with a pubescence of long, soft hairs resembling wool.
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like the rough, vigorous atmosphere of the early West in America.
wild and woolly.
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fuzzy; unclear; disorganized.
woolly thinking.
noun
plural
woollies-
Western U.S. a wool-bearing animal; sheep.
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Usually woollies. a knitted undergarment of wool or other fiber.
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any woolen garment, as a sweater.
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Dialect. a dust ball.
adjective
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consisting of, resembling, or having the nature of wool
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covered or clothed in wool or something resembling it
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lacking clarity or substance
woolly thinking
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botany covered with long soft whitish hairs
woolly stems
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recalling the rough and lawless period of the early West of America (esp in the phrase wild and woolly )
noun
-
(often plural) a garment, such as a sweater, made of wool or something similar
-
(usually plural) an informal word for sheep
Regionalisms
See dust ball.
Other Word Forms
- woollily adverb
- woolliness noun
Etymology
Origin of woolly
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
At the end of a gravel road, a few children played outdoors, rosy-cheeked in the bitter cold, one wearing a Spiderman woolly hat.
From Barron's • Feb. 6, 2026
Mr. Ellis’s music can generally be described as woolly folk-rock mixed with a few jazzy inflections.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 2, 2025
Fossil evidence also revealed that these warm-adapted hippos lived alongside cold-climate animals such as mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses -- an unusual ecological mix that highlights the complexity of Ice Age environments.
From Science Daily • Oct. 26, 2025
When his county team-mates were conducting their pre-season media duties in March, Stokes was jogging between cones in a woolly hat and leggings.
From BBC • Jul. 24, 2025
Two enormous weeping willows, like woolly mammoths, on either side of the property.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.