Word.ws English Dictionary

wooly

wooly is the alternative form of woolly.

Meaning of woolly

Adjective

woolly (comparative woollier, superlative woolliest)

  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. (figuratively) Unclear, fuzzy, hazy, cloudy.
    • That's the sort of woolly thinking that causes wars to start.
  4. (obsolete) Clothed in wool.
    • woolly breedersc. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  5. (archaic, slang) Cross; irritable.
    • […] 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.1911, Shoe and Leather Journal, volume 25, page 27
  6. (US, informal) Uncivilized and unruly.
    • wild and woolly

See all 10 meanings of woolly

Forms of wooly

Adjective
comparativewoolier
superlativewooliest
Noun
pluralwoolies

Origin of wooly

From Middle English wolly, equivalent to wool + -y.

Words formed from wooly

Phrases with wooly

Questions about wooly

What is wooly the alternative form of?
Wooly is the alternative form of woolly.

Words near wooly in the dictionary

  1. woolworking
  2. woolworks
  3. Woolworth gun
  4. Woolworth guns
  5. Woolworth's
  6. wooly
  7. wooly bear
  8. wooly bears
  9. wooly mammoth
  10. wooly mammoths
  11. wooly pate

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wooly (page history and authors); woolly (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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Cite this entry: “wooly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wooly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.