woof
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: business
manufacturing
textiles
weaving
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English wof, oof, owf (“threads in a piece of woven fabric at right angles to the warp, weft, woof; also sometimes the warp; transverse filaments of a spider web”) [and other forms] (the forms beginning with w were influenced by warp and weft), from Old English ōwef, āwef, from ō-, ā- (prefix meaning ‘away; from; off; out’) + *wef (“web”) (only attested in the form gewef (“woof”); from wefan (“to weave”), from Proto-West Germanic *weban (“to weave”), from Proto-Germanic *webaną (“to weave”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid; to weave”)).
The verb is derived from the noun.
Inflected forms:
form: woofs
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: The set of yarns carried by the shuttle of a loom which are placed crosswise at right angles to and interlaced with the warp; the weft.
pos: noun
examples: When the plage of leproſye is in a cloth: […] that cloth ſhalbe burnt, ether warpe or wolfe, whether it be wollen or lynen or any thynge that is made of ſkynne where the plage is, […]
[…] Solon vvas of this opinion, that the proper vvorke of every art and facultie, as vvell divine as humane, vvas rather the effect and thing by it vvrought, than that vvhereby it vvas effected; […] for ſo I ſuppoſe that a vveaver vvill ſay, that his vvorke is to make a vveb for a mantle, a coat or ſuch a robe, and not to ſpoole, vvinde quils, lay his vvarpe, ſhoot oufe, or raiſe and let fall the vveights and ſtones hanging to the loome: […]
[…] Paſsions of Matter, are Plebeian Notions, applied vnto the Inſtruments and Vſes vvhich Men ordinarily practiſe; But they are all but the Effects of ſome of theſe Cauſes follovving; […] The Fourteenth is the Placing, of the Tangible Parts, in Length, or Tranſuerſe; (as it is in the VVarpe, and the VVoofe of Textiles;) […]
gloss: A woven fabric; also, the texture of a fabric.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
examples: [T]his is no lavv unto the vvoof of the neat Retiarie Spider, vvhich ſeems to vveave vvithout tranſverſion, and by the union of right lines to make out a continued ſurface, vvhich is beyond the common art of Textury, and may ſtill nettle Minerva the Godeſſe of that myſtery.
To ſpread the pall beneath the regal chair / Of ſofteſt vvoof, is bright Alcippe’s care.
The purple ſtain on fleecy vvoofs he ſpread, / VVhich lur'd the eye, adorning many a nymph, / And drevv the pomp of trade to riſing Tyre.
[…] Ulyſſes then in haſte / Put on his veſt and mantle, and, the nymph / Her ſnovvy veſture of tranſparent vvoof, / Graceful, redundant; […]
Drawn round her [Nature's] brows a lucid veil depends, / O'er her fine waist the purfled woof descends; / Her stately limbs the gather'd folds surround, / And spread their golden selvage on the ground.
Flames dart their glare o'er midnight's sable woof, […]
That girl's thread of life has been the dark line in my woof—she has robbed me of fortune—she now thwarts me in my career—she humbles me in my vanity.
These causes of delay now vanished, the Parcæ closed the abrupt woof, and lifted the impending shears.
At either hand stood open the tall doors, / But partly draped by woofs of Phrygian looms; […]
gloss: The thread or yarn used to form the weft of woven fabric; the fill, the weft.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
poetic
examples: [F]irſt I muſt put off / Theſe my skie robes ſpun out of Iris vvooffe, / And take the vveeds and likeneſſe of a Svvaine, […]
Iris had dipt the wooff; / His ſtarrie Helme unbuckl'd ſhew'd him prime / In Manhood where Youth ended; […]
Or am I mad, my father, and did I weave these visions from the woof of my madness? I do not know, but it is true that I seemed to see them.
gloss: Synonym of weaving (“the process of making woven material on a loom”).
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
rare
examples: Mean time Alcyone (his Fate unknovvn) / Computes hovv many Nights he had been gone, / […] / Againſt the promis'd Time provides vvith care, / And haſtens in the VVoof the Robes he vvas to vvear: / And for her Self employs another Loom, / Nevv-dreſs'd to meet her Lord returning home, / Flatt'ring her Heart vvith Joys that never vvere to come: […]
gloss: Something which is interwoven with another thing.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: [T]he woof of self-interest is so cunningly interwoven with the warp of righteous feeling that very few of us can tell where the threads cross.
gloss: An underlying foundation or structure of something; a fabric.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: The proces of that Oration was of the ſame woofe and thrid with the beginning; […]
Miſta black, terrific Maid, / Sangrida, and Hilda ſee, / Join the vvayvvard vvork to aid: / 'Tis the vvoof of victory.
The fireside, then, is a seminary of infinite importance; it is important because it is universal, and because the education it bestows, being woven in with the woof of childhood, gives form and color to the whole texture of social life. There are few who can receive the honors of a college, but all are graduates of the hearth.
The blind old scholar—whose proud truthfulness would never enter into that commerce of feigned and preposterous admiration which, varied by a corresponding measureless in vituperation, made the woof of all learned intercourse—had fallen into neglect even among his fellow-citizens, […]
Derived words: warp and woof
Translations: