# wool
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English wolle, from Old English wull, from Proto-West Germanic *wullu, from Proto-Germanic *wullō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂.
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Wulle, German Low German Wull, Dutch wol, German Wolle, Norwegian ull; also Welsh gwlân, Latin lāna, Lithuanian vìlna, Russian во́лос (vólos), Slovak vlna, Bulgarian влас (vlas), Albanian lesh (“wool, hair, fleece”). Doublet of lana.
The vowel development u → o → oo is purely graphical. Modern English generally avoids the string ‹wu› in favour of ‹wo›, and the resulting woll was then altered to wool (as supposedly better representing the pronunciation).

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /wʊl/
* (General American) enPR: wo͝ol, IPA: /wʊl/, [wʊ̠ɫ], [wəl]
** Audio (US):(file)
* (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA: /wʉl/
* Rhymes: -ʊl

### Noun

wool (usually uncountable, plural wools)
* 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.
* A cloth or yarn made from such hair.
** 2009 January 12, Mireya Navarro, “It May Market Organic Alternatives, but Is Your Cleaner Really Greener?”, in New York Times: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.
* Anything with a fibrous texture like that of sheep's wool.
    Hyponyms: cotton wool; wood wool; mineral wool, rockwool, glass wool; wire wool, aluminum wool, brass wool, steel wool
** 1975, Anthony Julian Huxley, Plant and Planet, page 223:The groundsels have leaves covered in wool for insulation […]
* A fine fiber obtained from the leaves of certain trees, such as firs and pines.
* (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
* (British, New Zealand) Yarn, including that made from synthetic fibers.
* (Liverpool, derogatory) A woolly back; a resident of a satellite town outside Liverpool, such as St Helens or Warrington. See also Yonner.
* (slang) A marijuana cigarette or cigar laced with crack cocaine.
    Synonyms: wooler, woolie
** 1991 March 29, “Slow Down” (0:25 from the start), in One for All‎, performed by Brand Nubian:The object of your affection is the treetop connection / Where basically you love to smoke your wools
** 2003 June 24, “Sabotage” (0:40 from the start), in The Ownerz‎, performed by Gang Starr:He rocked Caesar's chains, he pushed Caesar's Range / Smokin' mad wools all day, with Caesar's change
** 2012, Chris Berdik, Mind Over Mind: The Surprising Power of Expectations, New York, N.Y.: Current, →ISBN, page 149:Lopez said the shooter's name was Lou, known on the street as Wool Lou, because he sold "wools," which were cigarettes rolled up with crack cocaine.

#### Hyponyms

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

#### Coordinate terms

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

#### Derived terms

* abb-wool
* all wool and a yard wide
* andalusian wool
* angora wool
* breech wool
* bullswool
* burry wool
* cony wool
* cotton wool
* cotton-wool
* cotton wool ball
* cotton wool bud
* darning wool
* dead pulled wool
* dewool
* dyed in the wool
* dyed-in-the-wool
* dye in the wool
* feather wool
* fleece wool
* gather wool
* glass wool
* go to the goat's house for wool
* great cry and little wool
* ice wool
* kaowool
* lambswool
* longwool
* meat wool
* mestizo wool
* milk wool
* mineral wool
* more cry than wool
* much cry and little wool
* nonwool
* philosopher's wool
* philosophers' wool
* philosophical wool
* pig's wool
* polywool
* pull the wool over somebody's eyes
* pull the wool over someone's eyes
* rag wool
* rock wool
* rockwool
* scoured wool
* seed wool
* Shetland wool
* shorn wool
* shortwool
* skin wool
* slut's wool
* steel wool
* steel-wool
* thibet wool
* underwool
* virgin wool
* warm as wool
* waste of wool
* wire wool
* wolf in wool
* wood wool
* wood-wool
* Wool Bay
* woolbroker
* wool classer
* woolclasser
* woolclassing
* wool classing
* wool clip
* woolcomb
* woolcomber
* wool comber
* woolcombing
* wooldriver
* wool-dyed
* wooled
* wool fat
* wool-fat
* woolfell
* wool-gather
* woolgathering
* wool-gathering
* woolgrass
* wool grease
* woolgrower
* woolgrowing
* woolhall
* woolhat
* woolhead
* wool-headed
* wool-hole
* woolhouse
* woolish
* woollen, woolen
* woolless
* woollike
* woolly, wooly
* woolman
* woolmonger
* wool moth
* wool oil
* woolpack
* woolpacker
* wool picker
* woolsack
* woolsedge
* woolshearer
* woolshearing
* woolshed
* woolskin
* woolsorter
* wool sorter
* woolsorting
* wool stapler
* woolstock
* woolulose
* woolward
* woolwasher
* wool wax
* woolwear
* woolwinder
* woolwork
* woolworker
* woolworking
* woolworks

#### Descendants

* → Japanese: ウール (ūru)

#### Translations
### References

* “wool”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
* “wool”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
* “wool”, in The Right Rhymes, launched 2013.

### Further reading

* wool on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

## Cornish
### Noun

wool
* Soft mutation of gool.

## Tlingit
### Noun

wool
* hole