woolly

comparative woollier · superlative woolliest · alternative wooly

1. Made of wool.

   Put on a woolly jumper and turn down the thermostat.

   1 more example

   Sporting a woolly cardigan with four buttons on top of an Oxford smock without a collar, our man has a faintly folksy look about him, calling to mind a zingaro or a gypsy, a carny or a Mongol, but also (switching to a wholly distinct mythology and iconography) a hippy strumming his guitar in a barroom in Haight-Ashbury or at Big Sur or in Katmandu.

   1995 [1969], Gilbert Adair, transl., A Void, translation of La Disparition by Georges Perec

2. Having a thick, soft texture, as if made of wool.

   woolly hair

   2 more examples

   There was nothing left in the fruit bowl but a brown banana and a couple of woolly pears.

   My skin is black / My arms are long / My hair is woolly / My back is strong

   1966, Nina Simone, “Four Women”, in Wild Is the Wind

3. figurativelyUnclear, fuzzy, hazy, cloudy.

   That's the sort of woolly thinking that causes wars to start.

   1 more example

   To call David Lean's Dr Zhivago a translation of Pasternak's novel is not only to disregard the specificity of film art, but to make such woolly use of the word ‘translation’ as to fit it to refer to any kind of transformation. Knitting included.

   2011, David Bellos, chapter 29, in Is that a Fish in Your Ear?

4. obsoleteClothed in wool.

   woolly breeders

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]

5. archaicslangCross; irritable.

   […] and don't get woolly because some of your little "deals" don't come off. You'd soon consider yourself the superior of God Almighty Himself if He didn't set you in your place once in a while.

   1911, Shoe and Leather Journal, volume 25, page 27

6. USinformalUncivilized and unruly.

   wild and woolly

plural woollies · alternative wooly

1. informalA sweater or similar garment made of wool.

   `I've got a rotten cold and I'm not taking my woollies off until it's better.'

   1965, James Holledge, What Makes a Call Girl?, London: Horwitz Publications, page 82

   1 more example

   Being an innocent Australian abroad in a European winter, I had taken with me every winter woolly I could borrow or squeeze out of friends and associates.

   1987, Kerry Cue, Hang On To Your Horses Doovers, page 83

2. USslangA sheep not yet shorn.
3. A piece of woolwork.

plural woollies · alternative wooly

1. derogatoryLiverpool slangA woolly back; someone from the area around Liverpool, not from Liverpool itself.