wool

the soft wavy or curly usually thick undercoat of various hairy mammals and especially the sheep made up of a matrix of keratin fibers and covered with minute scales

The first known use: before the 12th century

Word Structure

4 Letters, 1 Syllable

wool

3 Phonemes

w u l

onset, rime

w ool

Morpheme

wool

Sentence Examples

She doesn't like wool because it can be itchy.

Common Phrases

all cry and no wool

A great deal of fuss, noise, fanfare, or protestation over something of little or no substance, importance, or relevance.

all wool and a yard wide

Of a person, very honorable.

all wool and no shoddy

Of a person, very honorable.

curly dirt

Clumps of dust.

dye in the wool

To stain wool fibers with dye before they are spun into thread, thus making the coloration more permanent. This phrase has led to the idiomatic modifier "dyed-in-the-wool," meaning permanent and or firmly established, such as one's opinions.

dyed-in-the-wool

Permanent and or firmly established, such as in one's opinions or beliefs.

great cry and little wool

A great deal of fuss, noise, fanfare, or protestation over something of little or no substance, importance, or relevance.

live in cotton wool

To lead a sheltered life, one devoid of stress and danger. The image here is of being wrapped in cotton and thus protected. Primarily heard in UK.

more cry than wool

A great deal of fuss, noise, fanfare, or protestation over something of little or no substance, importance, or relevance.

pull the wool over (one's) eyes

To deceive, fool, or misdirect one, especially to gain an advantage. (Likely an allusion to the once-common practice of men wearing large powdered wigs that resembled lambs' wool.)

put the wool over (one's) eyes

To deceive, fool, or misdirect one, especially to gain an advantage. (Likely an allusion to the once-common practice of men wearing large powdered wigs that resembled lambs' wool.)

wrap (one) up in cotton wool

To be overprotective of one; to coddle one.

Related Words

Sound the same but are spelled differently.

Collocations

The habitual juxtaposition of a particular word with another word or words with a frequency greater than chance.

Neighborhood

False Friends

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