Word.ws English Dictionary

woolgathering

woolgathering noun: the gathering of fragments of wool torn from sheep by bushes, etc.

Noun

woolgathering (usually uncountable, plural woolgatherings)

  1. (usually) The gathering of fragments of wool torn from sheep by bushes, etc.
  2. (usually) Indulgence in idle fancies or daydreams.
    • [while fishing] Alone with my tin of bait and my wool-gatherings, I was in a world of my own, localized and satisfying as such world always are.1938, Siegfried Sassoon, The Old Century and seven more years, London: Faber, page 109 (1968 edition)

Forms of woolgathering

pluralwoolgatherings
alternative formwool-gathering

Origin of woolgathering

From wool + gathering.

Words formed from woolgathering

Questions about woolgathering

What does woolgathering mean?
Woolgathering means the gathering of fragments of wool torn from sheep by bushes, etc.
What part of speech is woolgathering?
Woolgathering is a noun.
What is the plural of woolgathering?
The plural of woolgathering is woolgatherings.

Words near woolgathering in the dictionary

  1. Woolgarlo
  2. woolgather
  3. woolgathered
  4. woolgatherer
  5. woolgatherers
  6. woolgathering
  7. woolgatherings
  8. woolgathers
  9. Woolgoolga
  10. woolgrader
  11. woolgraders

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: woolgathering (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-woolgathering.oga.

Cite this entry: “woolgathering.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/woolgathering. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.