| 释义 |
woolly, a. (n.)|ˈwʊlɪ|
Also 6 woolley, 7 wolly, 7, 9 wooly, 8 Sc. ooy.
[f. wool n. + -y1. Cf. (M)LG. wullig, Du., G. wollig.]
A. adj.
1. Consisting of wool. Also transf. relating to wool; containing wool (or sheep).
1591Spenser M. Hubberd 302 Giuing accompt of th' annuall increace Both of their lambes, and of their woolley fleece. 1662J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 165 He had upon his upper Garment, some black Sheep-skin, the woolly side out. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 493 Thus while she sings, the Sisters turn the Wheel, Empty the wooly Rock, and fill the Reel. 1700― Ovid's Met. xv. Pythag. Phil. 171 The Sheep..A patient, useful Creature, born to bear The warm and woolly Fleece, that cloath'd her Murderer. 1820Keats Eve St. Agnes i, Silent was the flock in woolly fold. 1891M. M. Dowie Girl in Karp. 214 The high perfection of all woolly occupations.
2. a. Of the nature, texture, or appearance of wool; resembling wool; wool-like.
c1586C'tess Pembroke Ps. cxlvii. v, Snowes woolly locks by him wide scatt'red are. 1588Shakes. Tit. A. ii. iii. 34 My fleece of Woolly haire. 1597Gerarde Herbal i. lxxiii. 106 Called..in Latine Laniferus, bicause of his abundance of woolly flockes, wherewith the whole plant is in euerie part full fraughted. 1652Benlowes Theophila iii. iii, The woolly-curdled Clouds. a1700Evelyn Diary 18 June 1657, Its haire was woolly like a lamb. 1708J. Philips Cyder ii. 186 O, may'st Thou often see Thy Furrows whiten'd by the woolly Rain [cf. ὕδωρ ἐριῶδες], Nutricious! 1726Pope Odyss. xix. 280 Short woolly curls o'erfleec'd his bending head. 1801Shaw Gen. Zool. II. 91 Its fur..is of a woolly nature. 1840R. H. Dana Bef. the Mast xiii. 31 Coarse black hair, but not wooly, like the negroes. 1856Geo. Eliot Scenes Clerical Life, Amos Barton ii, The sky had the white woolly look that portends snow. 1902Words of Eye-witness 53 A puff of woolly smoke in the air.
b. Having a soft and clinging texture; said esp. of edible things which are consequently unpleasant to the palate; also of the surface of a road.
1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. ii. 117 The Fruit..is pretty sweet but woolly [orig. cotonneux]. 1829Sporting Mag. XXIII. 416 He..has a pair of leaders ready when the roads run woolly. 1849D. J. Browne Amer. Poultry Yd. (1855) 207 Barley..is apt to render the flesh [of poultry] insipid, and woolly. 1854Poultry Chron. I. 619 She has found the eggs of Spanish fowls eat woolly. 1862G. J. Whyte-Melville Inside Bar! ix. 345 Time's short,..roads woolly, and whip⁓cord scarce. 1874Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 497 The pulp soon assumes a spongy appearance, technically known as ‘woolly’. 1882Garden 18 Mar. 176/2 Turnips have become all tops, and..are just getting into the woolly stage.
3. a. Having a natural covering of wool, wool-bearing.
1596Shakes. Merch. V. i. iii. 84 When the worke of generation was Betweene these woolly breeders in the act. 1697Dryden æneis iii. 844 Like him in Caves they shut their woolly Sheep. 1725Pope Odyss. xii. 319 Then suddenly was heard..To low the ox, to bleat the woolly train. 1788Picken Poems 104 Twall score o' sheep..sal be thine, O' ooy sheep, the fattest o' the plain. 1860G. H. Kingsley in Galton Vac. Tour. 139 [The colly dog] is jumping from one woolly back to another, intent on singling out the one which has been indicated to him.
b. Having hair resembling wool: applied esp. (depreciatingly) to Blacks of African origin or descent (= woolly-haired or -headed).
1767Carteret in Hawkesw. Voy. (1773) I. 568 Two of the natives..were black, with woolly heads. 1812Mrs. Barbauld 1811, 166 Streets, where the turban'd Moslem, bearded Jew, And woolly Afric, met the brown Hindu. 1881M. E. Braddon Asph. xxiv, He had eaten pemmican, and ridden a woolly horse. 1886W. J. Tucker E. Europe 351 It was a large, woolly poodle, snowy white.
c. In specific names of animals, often rendering L. lanatus, laniger.
woolly bear, (a) colloq. (esp. children's), also dial. a hairy caterpillar; also spec. the larva of the carpet beetle; freq. attrib.; (b) Mil. slang (see quots.); woolly boy, a large hairy caterpillar, esp. the larva of the tiger-moth. woolly mammoth = mammoth n. 1; woolly worm U.S., a hairy caterpillar.
1781Pennant Hist. Quadr. I. 213 Woolly Maucauco. 1793Ibid. (ed. 3) II. 196 Woolly Rat. 1805Dorothy Wordsworth Jrnl. 7 Nov., Like an immense caterpillar, such as, when we were children, we used to call Woolly Boys, from their hairy coat. 1842Loudon Suburban Hort. 551 The pear..is seldom affected with the woolly aphis. 1863Wood Illustr. Nat. Hist. III. 535 Its [sc. the Tiger-moth's] caterpillar is..familiar under the name of Woolly Bear. Ibid. 598 Fig., Woolly crab, Dorippe lanata. 1877Cassell's Nat. Hist. I. 171 The Woolly Monkeys, Lagothrix. Ibid. 221 The Woolly Lemur—The Avahi. Indris laniger. 1878Ibid. II. 333 Rhinoceros trichorhinus, or the Woolly Rhinoceros. 1909Webster, Wooly worm, the larva of any sawfly that covers itself with a white woolly secretion. 1911E. Ferber Dawn O'Hara ii. 19 I'd eat wooly worms if I thought they might benefit me. 1915War Illustr. 31 July 546/2 The German high-explosive shell, known to our men by the nickname of the ‘Woolly Bear’,..detonates with a cloud of thick white smoke. 1918H. W. McBride Emma Gees 135 ‘Woolly Bear’ is the name given to a large, high explosive shell, with a time fuse, which bursts overhead, giving out a dense black smoke. 1923Kipling Irish Guards in Gt. War II. 82 They were drenched with a five hours' bombardment of 4.2's and ‘woolly bears’. 1933A. S. Romer Vertebr. Paleontol. xix. 376 The woolly mammoth was a form adapted to cold climates. 1940R. G. Russell 101st Field Artillery 1917–19 94 A German 150-millimetre battery fired ‘woolly bears’, time-fuse shells, which burst too high to do any harm. 1950N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Nov. 478/3 The most common enemy of cinerarias in New Zealand is the ‘woolly-bear’ caterpillar, the larva of the magpie moth. 1951Good Housek. Home Encycl. 324/2 Woolly bear. This is the grub of a small beetle which..congregates in hot airing cupboards. 1961Woolly bear [see carpet beetle s.v. carpet n. 5]. 1969Bennison & Wright Geol. Hist. Brit. Isles xvi. 359 The presence of either the woolly mammoth or the reindeer does not necessarily indicate an arctic climate. 1972E. Wigginton Foxfire Bk. 209 The woolly worm tells of a bad winter if: there are a lot of them crawling about. 1974A. Dillard Pilgrim at Tinker Creek xiv. 247 Woolly bears, those orange-and-black-banded furry caterpillars of the Isabella moth, were on the move. 1976Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 16 May 6/1 The woolly mammoth..roamed the tundra areas. 1980Blair & Ketchum's Country Jrnl. Oct. 28/2 October is the month when the woolly bear caterpillar, sometimes called a fuzzy-wuzzy or woolly worm, can be seen crossing country roads. 1983Listener 27 Oct. 16/3 Our wall-to wall carpets attract the ‘woolly bear’ grubs of the carpet beetle.
d. wild and woolly, orig. applied to the Far West (west n.1 3 b) of the United States of America on account of its rude and uncivilized character; hence gen. barbarous, lacking culture. Also transf., and as woolly simply.
1884A. J. Sowell Rangers & Pioneers of Texas xi. 330 Occasionally, in some Western village, you will hear a voice ring out on the night air..‘Wild and woolly’,..and then you may expect a few shots from a revolver. It is a cowboy out on a little spree. 1891A. Welcker Tales of the ‘Wild & Woolly West’ Publishers' Note, Woolly..seems to refer to the uncivilized—untamed—hair outside—wool still in the sheepskin coat—condition of the Western Pioneers. 1891M. E. Ryan Told in Hills iii. iv. 191 Let us ‘move our freight’, ‘hit the breeze’, or any other term of the woolly West that means action. 1894Westm. Gaz. 30 Aug. 2/1 How many Indians did you kill? Now, Cappen, I want something wild and woolly. 1907S. E. White Arizona Nights viii. 130 ‘Who's your woolly friend’, the shiny Jew asks of the girls. 1940R. S. Lambert Ariel & All his Quality viii. 197 [They] looked with scepticism upon a plan which they regarded as wild and woolly.
†e. = woollen a. 1 c. Obs. rare.
1631Dekker Match Mee ii. D 1 b, Thankes vengeance; thou at last art come (Tho with wolly feet).
4. a. Of parts of plants: Covered with a pubescence resembling wool; downy, lanate, tomentose.
1578Lyte Dodoens i. lxxiv. 124 Aethiopis hath great brode woolly leaues. 1616B. Jonson Forest ii, The blushing Apricot, and woolly Peach. 1697Dryden æneis xii. 611 Rough is the Stem, which woolly Leafs surround. 1731Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Abutilon, The large-leav'd American Abutilon, with woolly Stalks. 1845Browning Lost Mistress ii, The leaf-buds on the Vine are woolly. 1870Hooker Stud. Flora 53 Githago segetum..Calyx woolly.
b. In specific names of plants, often rendering L. lanatus or tomentosus.
woolly butt [butt n.3 4], an Australian name for species of Eucalyptus, esp. E. longifolia.
1597Gerarde Herbal i. lxxiii. 106 Bulbus Eriophorus, Woolly Iacint. Ibid. ii. cclix. 634 We may call it Mullein of æthiopia, or woolly Mullein. 1650[W. Howe] Phytol. Brit. 61 Hypericum tomentosum,..Lobells Woolly S. Iohns⁓wort. 1830J. D. Maycock Flora Barbadensis 294 Phaseolus Mungo..Woolly-Pyroe. 1857Anne Pratt Flower. Pl. V. 111 Salix lanata..Woolly Broad-leaved Willow. 1862Internat. Exhib., Catal. Products Queensld. 25 Eucalyptus sp... Woolly Butt. 1889J. H. Maiden Usef. Pl. Australia 524 ‘Woolly Gum’ of Berrima..This is the smooth-barked variety of Eucalyptus Stuartiana. 1912Contemp. Rev. Aug. 247 Giant woolly-butt forests.
5. gen. Having a wool-like texture, surface, or covering.
1796Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) II. 27 The nativo [nitre] is generally acicular or woolly. 1914C. Mackenzie Sinister St. iii. xv, The golf-bag..woolly now with the accumulated mildew of neglect.
6. transf. and fig. Lacking in definiteness or incisiveness; ‘muzzy’; (of the mind, etc.) confused and hazy; (of painting, etc.) lacking in clearness or definition; (of sound, etc.) dull and indistinct.
1815Sporting Mag. XLVI. 54 It [sc. a picture] looks woolly, undecided in shapes. 1839Chatto & Jackson Wood Engraving 711 Some of the chiaro-scuros..seem too soft and woolly. 1864Yates Broken to Harness I. viii. 146 The daughter of old Dunkel..was a little woolly. 1865Hawker in Life (1905) 518 Pusey's woolly mind appears to cling to him [sc. Gladstone]. 1872Geo. Eliot Middlem. xxxv. II. 198, ‘I suppose you know..’ said Mrs. Waule, in she lowest of her woolly tones. 1874L. Carr Jud. Gwynne v, The farm-servants..lost in woolly wonder. 1878Lockyer Stargazing 354 Except on the finest of nights the stars..appear woolly. 1879G. Macdonald Sir Gibbie xix, ‘That is not a bad remark, Joseph,’ replied the laird, with woolly condescension. 1881Stevenson Virg. Puerisque, Some Portraits by Raeburn (1905) 142 Dugald Stewart's woolly and evasive periods. 1884Bazaar 26 Dec. 681/3 A drawing to look into, but rather woolly at a few paces off. 1895M. Kingsley W. Africa 572 The performance..growing woollier and woollier in tone, and then dying out in sleep. 1897Graphic Christmas No. 9 The stiff woolly piano.
7. Comb., as woolly-butted (butt n.3 4), woolly-coated, woolly-haired, woolly-leaved, woolly-looking, woolly-minded (hence woolly-mindedness), woolly-pated, woolly-tailed, woolly-witted adjs.
1843J. Backhouse Narr. Visit Austral. Col. 445 The Gum-trees..are of several species. One called here, the *Woolly-butted Gum, seems identical with the Black-butted Gum of Tasmania.
1852R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour (1893) 341 A lank, *woolly-coated weed [sc. a horse].
1791Boswell Johnson 3 June an. 1781, Lord Monboddo's notion, that the ancient Egyptians..were not only black, but *woolly-haired. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair xii, Miss Swartz, the woolly-haired young heiress from St. Kitt's. 1868Lyell Princ. Geol. iii. xlvii. (ed. 10) II. 563 The..woolly-haired rhinoceros.
1822Hortus Anglicus II. 380 Inula Suaveolens. *Woolly-leaved Inula. 1859W. S. Coleman Woodlands (1862) 128 The Woolly-leaved Rose (Rosa tomentosa).
1881Cassell's Encycl. Dict., Breislakite.., a *woolly-looking variety of aluminous pyroxene.
1898Daily News 8 Nov. 5/4 There are plenty of such *woolly-minded men in high places.
1923Blackw. Mag. May 598/2 The Don, with much alacrity and *woolly-mindedness,..proceeded to ransack all the lockers.
1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 18 A comely well Limb'd Person, though a *Woolly-pated Coffery.
1848tr. Hoffmeister's Trav. Ceylon etc. x. 362 *Woolly-tailed Yak ox.
1927Observer 6 Nov. 15/1 The managerial attitude towards producers is at present *woolly-witted. 1949St. J. Ervine Craigavon ii. lvii. 273 That woolly-witted insurrectionist.
B. n.
1. A woollen garment or covering; now esp. pl., garments or wraps knitted of (fleecy) wool. winter woollies, warm underwear (not necessarily of wool); freq. joc. Also fig.
1865Slang Dict., Woolly, a blanket. 189919th Cent. Aug. 283 ‘Granny the Thimbleman’..knits woollies for the ‘quality’. 1916Contemp. Rev. Oct. 514 note, Flannel shirts..and woollies of all sorts for the wounded soldiers. 1919Blackw. Mag. Feb. 148/2 Some thin underclothing and a ‘woolley’ in addition to the spare shirt and socks. 1926Wodehouse Heart of Goof vi. 194 His mother had bought him a new set of winter woollies which felt like horsehair. 1933Dylan Thomas Sel. Lett. (1966) 24 Catch him [sc. Wordsworth].. walking the hills with a daffodil pressed to his lips, and his winter woollies tickling his chest. 1964Observer 13 Sept. 11/3 If we wear the winter woollies of traditional trade unionism against the hot sun of automation, we may sweat it out instead of thinking it out. 1974Nature 18 Oct. 569/1 The dinosaurs' unsatisfied need was not so much for laxatives as for winter woollies!
2. A sheep; esp. (Austral. and N.Z.) one before shearing. U.S., Austral., and N.Z. colloq.
1910J. G. Neihardt River & I iii. 92 In Scotland when a feller sees a sheepman coming down the road with his sheep, he says: ‘Behold the gentle shepherd with his fleecy flock!’.. In Montana, that same feller says..‘Look at that crazy blankety-blank with his woolies!’ 1930Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Apr. 23/1 We curse the stubborn woollies..as the sweating shearers tussle. 1935H. Davis Honey in Horn xi. 162 She had a little short⁓bodied guitar of the kind that Mexican sheep herders used to carry around behind their saddles to entertain the woolies with. 1949F. Sargeson I saw It in my Dream ii. xiii. 111 White dots that you could tell were both sheep and lambs; and they were so white it was easy to tell that they weren't woollies any more. 1972P. Newton Sheep Thief vi. 48 The biggest proportion proved to be Totara sheep of mixed ages, three of them woollies.
3. [Cf. wolly.] A uniformed policeman. slang.
1965R. E. Ridgway in B. Wannan Fair Go, Spinner ii. 66 Later on, as the station expanded and more ‘woollies’ were added, the shed grew accordingly. 1975Listener 6 Feb. 163/2 Sir Robert Mark{ddd}saw its [sc. the CID's] members behaving as if they could walk on water, and looking down on the ‘woollies’ who had to plod the beat in uniform. 1978‘B. Graeme’ Double Trouble xv. 191 One of the woollies blew his whistle. 1984Private Eye 20 Apr. 6/2 A small army of ‘Woollies’—CID slang for uniformed officers—were summoned. |