Woolly
adj, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A sweater or similar garment made of wool. informal
"`I've got a rotten cold and I'm not taking my woollies off until it's better.'"
- 2 A woolly back; someone from the area around Liverpool, not from Liverpool itself. derogatory
- 3 A sheep not yet shorn. US, slang
- 4 A piece of woolwork.
- 1 Made of wool.
"Put on a woolly jumper and turn down the thermostat."
- 2 Having a thick, soft texture, as if made of wool.
"woolly hair"
- 3 Unclear, fuzzy, hazy, cloudy. figuratively
"That's the sort of woolly thinking that causes wars to start."
- 4 Clothed in wool. obsolete
"woolly breeders"
- 5 Cross; irritable. archaic, slang
"[…] 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."
- 1 covered with dense cottony hairs or hairlike filaments wordnet
- 2 covered with dense often matted or curly hairs wordnet
- 3 confused and vague; used especially of thinking wordnet
- 4 having a fluffy character or appearance wordnet
Example
More examples"His mother knitted him a woolly jumper every year for Christmas."
Etymology
From Middle English wolly, equivalent to wool + -y. Cognate with Saterland Frisian wullich (“woolly”), Dutch wollig (“woolly”), German wollig (“woolly”), Swedish ullig (“woolly”).
From woolly back.
Related phrases
More for "woolly"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.