An animal that bears wool, esp. a sheep.
1483. Cath. Angl., 423/1. A Wolle berere, laniger.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 631. The Epithets of this beast are, horne-bearer,… wool-bearer [etc.].
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XXIV. 134. A huge wooll-bearer, slaughterd there.
1651. Barksdale, Nympha Lib., II. xlv. 45. The trembling Wool-bearer.
1837. Youatt, Sheep, iii. 95. Many an animal that had not been dreamed of as a wool-bearer.
1891. C. Roberts, Adrift Amer., 245. To maunder on behind the slow and harmless wool-bearers.
So Wool-bearing a.
1830. Booth, Analyt. Dict., 186. The Sheep, or Woolbearing animal (Ovis aries).
