woofe

Noun

woof (plural woofs)

1. The set of yarns carried by the shuttle of a loom which are placed crosswise at right angles to and interlaced with the warp; the weft.
   • When the plage of leproſye is in a cloth: […] that cloth ſhalbe burnt, ether warpe or wolfe, whether it be wollen or lynen or any thynge that is made of ſkynne where the plage is, […]1530 January 27 (Gregorian calendar), W[illiam] T[yndale], transl., [The Pentateuch] (Tyndale Bible), Malborow [Marburg], Hesse: […] Hans Luft [actually Antwerp: Johan Hoochstraten], →OCLC, Leuiticus...
2. (broadly) A woven fabric; also, the texture of a fabric.
   • [T]his is no lavv unto the vvoof of the neat Retiarie Spider, vvhich ſeems to vveave vvithout tranſverſion, and by the union of right lines to make out a continued ſurface, vvhich is beyond the common art of Textury, and may ſtill nettle Minerva the Godeſſe of that myſtery.1658, Thomas Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus. […]. Chapter II.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: […] Hen[ry] Brome […], →OCLC, pages 110–111
3. (broadly, poetic) The thread or yarn used to form the weft of woven fabric; the fill, the weft.
   • [F]irſt I muſt put off / Theſe my skie robes ſpun out of Iris vvooffe, / And take the vveeds and likeneſſe of a Svvaine, […]1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey...
4. (obsolete, rare) Synonym of weaving (“the process of making woven material on a loom”).
   • Mean time Alcyone (his Fate unknovvn) / Computes hovv many Nights he had been gone, / […] / Againſt the promis'd Time provides vvith care, / And haſtens in the VVoof the Robes he vvas to vvear: / And for her Self employs another Loom, / Nevv-dreſs'd to meet her Lord returning home, / Flatt'ring her...1700, [John] Dryden, “Ceyx and Alcyone”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 370

   Synonyms:

   weaving

5. (figuratively) Something which is interwoven with another thing.
   • [T]he woof of self-interest is so cunningly interwoven with the warp of righteous feeling that very few of us can tell where the threads cross.1882, [Mary Elizabeth Braddon], “‘Alas for Me then, My Good Days are Done’”, in Mount Royal […], volume II, London: John and Robert Maxwell […], →OCLC, page 19
6. (figuratively) An underlying foundation or structure of something; a fabric.
   • The proces of that Oration was of the ſame woofe and thrid with the beginning; […]1596, Tho[mas] Nashe, “Dialogus”, in Haue with You to Saffron-Walden. Or, Gabriell Harveys Hunt is Up. […], London: […] John Danter, →OCLC; republished as J[ohn] P[ayne] C[ollier], editor, Have with...

See all 20 meanings of woof