WOOL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does wool mean? 

• WOOL (noun)
  The noun WOOL has 3 senses:

1. a fabric made from the hair of sheep

2. fiber sheared from animals (such as sheep) and twisted into yarn for weaving

3. outer coat of especially sheep and yaks

  Familiarity information: WOOL used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WOOL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A fabric made from the hair of sheep

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

wool; woolen; woollen

Hypernyms ("wool" is a kind of...):

cloth; fabric; material; textile (artifact made by weaving or felting or knitting or crocheting natural or synthetic fibers)

Holonyms ("wool" is a substance of...):

tweed (thick woolen fabric used for clothing; originated in Scotland)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Fiber sheared from animals (such as sheep) and twisted into yarn for weaving

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("wool" is a kind of...):

animal fiber; animal fibre (fiber derived from animals)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wool"):

Shetland wool (a wool obtained from sheep of the Shetland islands)

raw wool (wool in its natural condition; not refined or processed)

alpaca (wool of the alpaca)

cashmere (the wool of the Kashmir goat)

fleece (the wool of a sheep or similar animal)

shoddy (reclaimed wool fiber)

vicuna (the wool of the vicuna)

virgin wool (wool not used before; wool not processed or woven before)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Outer coat of especially sheep and yaks

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

fleece; wool

Hypernyms ("wool" is a kind of...):

coat; pelage (growth of hair or wool or fur covering the body of an animal)

Derivation:

woolly; wooly (covered with dense often matted or curly hairs)

 Context examples 

He had a very fine flock, and, while she was with them, he had been bid more for his wool than any body in the country.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The covering of hair, wool, or fur on the body of an animal.

(Coat, NCI Thesaurus)

An oily substance taken from sheep's wool.

(Lanolin, NCI Dictionary)

"No more Maria washa da wools," her story always ended.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

This steel-wool hair comes in black, fawn, gray, or brindle.

(Bouviers Des Flandres, NCI Thesaurus)

A body lay within, its head all wreathed in cotton-wool, which had been soaked in the narcotic.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But mayhap it is best to let the wool grow long ere you clip it.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The other was, by a certain composition of gums, minerals, and vegetables, outwardly applied, to prevent the growth of wool upon two young lambs; and he hoped, in a reasonable time to propagate the breed of naked sheep, all over the kingdom.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The dry-goods stores were not down among the counting-houses, banks, and wholesale warerooms, where gentlemen most do congregate, but Jo found herself in that part of the city before she did a single errand, loitering along as if waiting for someone, examining engineering instruments in one window and samples of wool in another, with most unfeminine interest, tumbling over barrels, being half-smothered by descending bales, and hustled unceremoniously by busy men who looked as if they wondered 'how the deuce she got there'.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Any of various hollow-horned, bearded ruminant mammals of the genus Capra, originally of mountainous areas of the Old World, especially any of the domesticated forms of C. hircus, raised for wool, milk, and meat.

(Goat, NCI Thesaurus)