Consisting of wool; as, a woolly covering; a
woolly fleece. [1913 Webster]
Resembling wool; of the nature of wool. "My
fleece of woolly hair." --Shak. [1913 Webster]
Clothed with wool. "Woolly breeders." --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
(Bot.) Clothed with a fine, curly pubescence
resembling wool. [1913 Webster] Woolly bear
(Zool.), the hairy larva of several species of bombycid moths. The
most common species in the United States are the salt-marsh
caterpillar (see under Salt), the black and red woolly
bear, or larva of the Isabella moth (see Illust., under Isabella
Moth), and the yellow woolly bear, or larva of the American
ermine moth (Spilosoma
Virginica). Woolly butt
(Bot.), an Australian tree (Eucalyptus
longifolia), so named because of its fibrous bark. Woolly louse
(Zool.), a plant louse (Schizoneura
lanigera syn Erisoma
lanigera) which is often very injurious to the apple tree. It
is covered with a dense coat of white filaments somewhat resembling
fine wool or cotton. In exists in two forms, one of which infests
the roots, the other the branches. See Illust. under Blight. Woolly
macaco (Zool.), the mongoose lemur. Woolly maki
(Zool.), a long-tailed lemur (Indris
laniger) native of Madagascar, having fur somewhat like wool;
-- called also avahi, and
woolly
lemur. Woolly
monkey (Zool.), any South American monkey of the genus Lagothrix, as the caparro.
Woolly
rhinoceros (Paleon.), an extinct rhinoceros (Rhinoceros
tichorhinus) which inhabited the arctic regions, and was
covered with a dense coat of woolly hair. It has been found frozen
in the ice of Siberia, with the flesh and hair well preserved.
[1913 Webster]
Word Net
woolly adj1 having a fluffy character or appearance [syn:
flocculent, wooly]
2 confused and vague; used especially of
thinking; "muddleheaded ideas"; "your addled little brain"; "woolly
thinking"; "woolly-headed ideas" [syn: addled, befuddled, muddled, muzzy, wooly, woolly-headed,
wooly-minded]
3 covered with dense often matted or curly hairs;
"woolly lambs" [syn: wooly]
4 covered with dense cottony hairs or hairlike
filaments; "the woolly aphid has a lanate coat resembling cotton"
[syn: lanate] [also:
woolliest, woollier]
Moby Thesaurus
bristly, bushy, cirrose, downy, feathery, fleecy, flocculent, flossy, fluffy, furry, fuzzy, hairy, hirsute, hispid, lanate, matted, pilose, pubescent, shagged, shaggy, unshorn, whiskeredEnglish
Pronunciation
- Rhymes with: -ʊli
Adjective
- Made of wool.
- Having a thick, soft texture, as if made of wool.
- woolly hair
- Of thinking, principles, etc, based on emotion rather than
logic.
- That's the sort of woolly thinking that causes wars to start.
Related terms
- woolly-minded qualifier British, wooly-minded qualifier US