Woollen

a. and sb. Forms: 1, 5 wullen, 4–6 wolen, 4–7 wollen, (4 -ene, wolyn, wullun, 4–5 wollin, 5 -yn, wolland, -on, 6 wolan, woulne, Sc. volene, woone, 7 wollan, 8–9 north. woon, woun), 6– woollen, (now U.S.) woolen. [Late OE. wullen, f. wull WOOL sb. + -EN⁴, replacing the mutated form wyllen (= OHG., MHG. wullîn). Cf. (M)LG. wullen, (M)Du. wollen, Fris., G. wollen.] A. adj.

  1.  Made of or manufactured from wool.

1046.  in Kemble, Cod. Dipl., IV. 107. Ic ʓe-an sancte Æðelðryðe anes wullenan kyrtles.

13[?].  K. Alis., 4445 (Laud MS.). Þe spere carf þorouȝ out As þorouȝ a wollene clout.

1376.  Rolls of Parlt., II. 353/1. File de Layn appelle Wolyn-yerne.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 215. My wyf was a webbe and wollen cloth made.

c. 1430.  Two Cookery-bks., I. 32. Þen take a quantyte of wollen cloþe.

1556.  Extr. Aberd. Regr. (1844), I. 300. Scottis wairis, sic as claith, lynning and woone.

1575.  A. Fleming, Virg. Bucol., III. 9. Nowe doth the Ram, and other sheepe theyr wollen garments drye.

1674.  Essex Papers (Camden), I. 278. Woollen Yarne being within y^e prohibition of y^e aforsaid Acts.

1776.  Adam Smith, W. N., I. i. I. 13. The woollen coat … which covers the day-labourer.

1799.  Med. Jrnl., I. 41. Coarse woollen stockings in winter, and thin ones in summer, ought, in his opinion, to be more generally worn.

1815.  Elphinstone, Acc. Caubul (1842), I. 183. In winter, the people are all clad in woollen garments.

1858.  Lardner, Hand-bk. Nat. Phil., 403. A woollen carpet is a non-conductor of heat.

1884.  W. S. B. McLaren, Spinning, 60. A woollen yarn … is a thread spun from wool in which the fibres are arranged so as to lie in every direction.

  † b.  Covered with (a fleece of) wool. Obs. rare.

1482.  in Charters &c. Edin. (1871), 169. Of the hundreth skynnis, wollin, calfis, gaittis, [etc.].

  † c.  fig. Silent, as if padded with wool: said of the feet or footsteps. Obs.

  After L. pedes laneos or lanatos habere, ‘to have woollen feet,’ to walk silently, to move unperceived.

1597.  J. King, On Jonas (1618), 173. Following with wollen feet, but smiting with an arme of iron.

1617.  Collins, Def. Bp. Ely, II. ix. 362. You shall find … woollen pace and iron vengeance.

  ¶  The allusion in the foll. quot. is uncertain.

1596.  Shaks., Merch. V., IV. i. 56. There is no firme reason … Why he cannot abide a gaping Pigge?… Why he a woollen bag-pipe.

[See 1876.  Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, 43/2. s.v. Bagpipe.]

  † 2.  Wearing woollen clothing, (a) as a mark of penance (cf. WOOLWARD a.), (b) as a mark of poor or lowly status. Obs.

1481.  Caxton, Godfrey, cci. 293. By comyn acord of the bisshoppes they cam wullen and barfote in the chirche of our lord.

1607.  Shaks., Cor., III. ii. 9. I muse my Mother Do’s not approue me further, who was wont To call them Wollen Vassailes, things created To buy and sell with Groats.

  B.  sb. Cloth or other fabric made of wool or chiefly of wool. Now rare.

  † To lie in the woollen: to sleep with a blanket next to one. To be buried in woollen: to have a woollen shroud, as required by the Act of 18 & 19. Chas. II. for the encouragement of the woollen manufacture.

a. 1300.  Fragm. 7 Sins, 16, in E. E. P. (1862), 19. Linin, wollin, glouis and schone.

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. I. 18. He hihte þe eorþe to seruen ow vchone Or wollene, Of linnene.

a. 1425.  Cursor M., 11112 (Trin.). He wered nouþer wollen ny lynne.

1459.  Paston Lett., I. 457. Vesselys or vestmentes of sylke, lynen, or wollyn.

1577.  Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., 122. In Winter, they would be clothed with Wollen for taking of cold.

1599.  Shaks., Much Ado, II. i. 33. I could not endure a husband with a beard on his face, I had rather lie in the woollen.

1663.  Butler, Hud., I. i. 309. His Breeches were of rugged Woollen.

1666.  Act 18 & 19 Chas. II., c. 4 (title), An Act for Burying in Woollen onely.

1719.  D’Urfey, Pills, III. 187. Let ’em damn us to Woolen, I’ll never repine At my Lodging when Dead.

1778.  D. Loch, Tour Scotl., 14. There are several looms employed here, but all in the piece-way, for linens and coarse woolen, adapted for country use.

1791.  A. Macaulay, Hist. Claybrook, 116. An affidavit was sent … of the body having been buried in woolen in Saint Pancras church-yard.

1836.  C. Wordsworth, Athens, v. (1855), 27. Over which is a shorter vest of woollen.

1885.  Ada S. Ballin, Sci. Dress, 128. Woollen should be worn not only in winter but in summer also, the only difference being in the thickness of the make and number of the garments.

1908.  Animal Managem., 73. Knee caps … are made of stout woollen or kersey.

  b.  pl. Woollen cloths or clothes.

1800.  Stuart, in Owen, Wellesley’s Desp. (1877), 577. A great quantity of English goods, particularly woollens, found their way into that country.

1816.  Tuckey, Narr. Exped. R. Zaire, ii. (1818), 52. Instead of melting under an equinoctial sun in the lightest cloathing,… they were glad to resume their woolens.

1823.  J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 53. They grew small sallad by means of woollens, in which the seeds were sown.

1876.  Bancroft, Hist. U.S., III. iv. 358. The exportation of Irish woollens to the colonies and to foreign countries was prohibited.

  ¶  A proposed name for the Mullein, Verbascum Thapsus, formed by substituting wull, woll WOOL sb. for the first syllable (but cf. MLG. wullene ‘? verbascum’).

1578.  [see WOLLEYN].

1597.  Gerarde, Herbal, II. cclvi. 630. Mullein is called … in English Mullein, or rather Woolen.

1866.  Treas. Bot., Woollen. Verbascum Thapsus.

  C.  attrib. and Comb. (chiefly of the sb.); a. simple attrib., as woollen†-card, district, -loom, manufacture, -mill, -trade, -weaving; b. objective, as woollen-dyer, -manufacturer, scribbler (SCRIBBLER 2), -spinner, † -webster, -worker; c. instrumental and parasynthetic, as woollen-clad, -frocked, -stockinged adjs.; d. Special comb.: Woollen Act, the act of 18 & 19. Chas. II. prescribing burial in woollen; † woollen-going vbl. sb. = woolward going (see WOOLWARD b); † woollen-head, a thick-headed or dull person (in quot. attrib.); † woollen-witted a., = WOOLLY-HEADED c; woollen-work, † (a) woollen manufacture; (b) = wool-work. Also WOOLLEN-DRAPER.

1678.  Dryden, Œdipus, Prol. 36. Record it,… The first Play bury’d since the *Wollen Act.

1612.  Sc. Bk. Rates, in Halyburton’s Ledger (1867), 294. Cardes called *wollen cardes.

1890.  W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 162. The *woollen-clad soldiers of Alexander.

c. 1890.  W. H. Casmey, Ventilation, 14. In the *woollen districts.

1709.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4611/4. James Ford of Bow,… *Woollen-dyer.

1864.  Bryce, Holy Rom. Emp., x. (1866), 175. An imperial penitent, standing barefoot and *woollen-frocked on the snow.

1493.  [H. Parker], Dives & Pauper, I. xxxvi. (W. de W., 1496), 76/1. All they that vse … masses syngynge, fastynges,… *wullen goeynge, and such other in theyr wytchecrafte.

1756.  Toldervy, Hist. 2 Orphans, III. 31. Proving to that *woollen-head justice, that we are neither felons nor vagrants, tho’ he was disposed to call us so.

1538.  Nottingham Rec., III. 200. Unum *wollenlome.

1565.  Burgh Rec. Prestwich, 15 Oct. (Maitl. Club), 69. Ane volene lwyme.

1666.  Act 18 & 19 Chas. II., c. 4. For the Encouragement of the *Woollen Manufactures of this Kingdom … Be it enacted [etc.].

1726.  Swift, Gulliver, I. viii.

1846.  M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Emp. (1854), I. 277. Various branches of the woollen manufacture have been introduced into Roxburghshire.

1732.  Berkeley, Alciphr., II. § 2. Other manufacturers, as well as the *woollen.

1802.  Ann. Reg., Chron., 67. The woollen-manufacturers are incensed at the introduction of new machinery.

1835.  Ure, Philos. Manuf., 72. At Bannockburn and Stirling, are a few *woollen-mills.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Woollen-scribblers,… machines for combing or preparing wool into thin downy translucent layers.

1884.  W. S. B. McLaren, Spinning (ed. 2), 6. The object of the *woollen-spinner will always be to have yarn in which [etc.].

1907.  Daily Chron., 7 Dec., 4/4. Women, thick-booted, *woollen-stockinged, flannel-petticoated.

1735.  Berkeley, Querist, § 89. Our hankering after the *Woollen-Trade.

1842.  Bischoff, Woollen Manuf., II. 68. The wool and woollen trade.

1588.  Kyd, Househ. Phil., Wks. (1901), 272. [A wife’s] principall care should be of Lynnen or of *wollen weauing.

1630.  trans. Camden’s Hist. Eliz., I. 119. Other such like stuffes of linnen and woollen weauing.

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. Prol. 99 (MS. T.). *Wollene websteris and weueris of lynen.

1638.  Knaresb. Wills (Surtees), II. 170. I, Richard Umpelbie of Linelandes, wollan webster.

1622[?].  Fletcher, Love’s Cure, II. i. Thou *Woollen-witted Hose-heeler.

1635.  Shirley, Lady Pleas., III. (1637), G 1. Course woollen witted fellowes.

1483.  Cath. Angl., 423/1. *Wolland warke…, lanificium.

1866.  All Year Round, XV. 189/2. Being accompanied in his progress by four young ladies, carrying baskets of woollen-work—the produce of island-industry—of which, he was sternly informed, it was the custom of every traveller of distinction to purchase about a ton.

1872.  Yeats, Growth Comm., 287. The arrival from the Spanish Netherlands of *woollen-workers.