woofing

Verb (1)

woof (third-person singular simple present woofs, present participle woofing, simple past and past participle woofed)

1. (rare, transitive) To place (yarns) crosswise at right angles to and interlaced with the warp in a loom.
   • And warp well the long threads, / The bright threads, the strong threads; / Woof well the cross threads, / To make the colours shine.1894, Alice C[laire] MacDonell, “The Weaving of the Tartan”, in Elizabeth A[melia] Sharp, editor, Lyra Celtica: An Anthology of Representative Celtic Poetry […], Edinburgh: Patrick Geddes and...
2. (figuratively, rare, transitive) To interweave (something) with another thing; to weave (several things) together.
   • Here and there, where the land has not been cleared and the tide of dense swamp-forest closes upon the road, one gazes into the fearful tangle of vegetation, warped and woofed together by lianas and creeping plants of every description, and then realises what the work of clearing has been.1922 July, Mrs. Cecil Clementi [Marie Penelope Rose Eyres], “An Odyssey of Fourteen Rivers”, in Blackwood’s Magazine, American edition, volume CCXII, number MCCLXXXI, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard...

Verb (2)

woof (third-person singular simple present woofs, present participle woofing, simple past and past participle woofed)

1. (figuratively, rare, transitive, African-American Vernacular) To say (something) in an aggressive or boastful manner.
2. (informal, rare, transitive, Royal Air Force slang) To eat (food) voraciously; to devour, to gobble, to wolf.
   • [N]othing makes me feel better than to see my dog's woofing down their food.2007 June 5, Patricia O’Grady, “Feeding a Homemade Diet”, in Woofing It Down: The Quick & Easy Guide to Making Healthy Dog Food at Home, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 23
3. (intransitive, rare, transitive) Of a dog: to bark.
   • A nondescript cur came out from behind the house, stopped in surprise, and started good-naturedly woof-woofing at me, his eyes slit, his shaggy belly all muddy, and then walked about a little and woofed once more.1955, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 28, in Lolita, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, published August 1958, →OCLC, part 2, page 271
4. (intransitive, rare, transitive) Of a person or thing: to make a sound resembling a dog's bark.
   • A few minutes later a new [grizzly] bear came out on the big log upstream— […] Within seconds she knew something was wrong. She woofed, bounded off the log and came raging down toward us through the timber. There, not far away, she smashed back and forth, woofing and growling.1963 November 8, Don Moser, “An Archer Stalks the Mighty Grizzly”, in Henry R[obinson] Luce, editor, Life, volume 55, number 19, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 115...

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