vegetable wool

noun

1. See under wool(def 5).

noun

1. the fine, soft, curly hair that forms the fleece of sheep and certain other animals, characterized by minute, overlapping surface scales that give it its felting property.
2. fabrics and garments of such wool.
3. yarn made of such wool.
4. any of various substances used commercially as substitutes for the wool of sheep or other animals.
5. any of certain vegetable fibers, as cotton or flax, used as wool, especially after preparation by special process (vegetable wool).
6. any finely fibrous or filamentous matter suggestive of the wool of sheep: glass wool; steel wool.
7. any coating of short, fine hairs or hairlike processes, as on a caterpillar or a plant; pubescence.
8. Informal. the human hair, especially when short, thick, and crisp.

Idioms

9. all wool and a yard wide, genuine; excellent; sincere: He was a real friend, all wool and a yard wide.
10. dyed in the wool, inveterate; confirmed: a dyed in the wool sinner.
11. pull the wool over someone’s eyes, to deceive or delude someone: The boy thought that by hiding the broken dish he could pull the wool over his mother’s eyes.

noun

1. the outer coat of sheep, yaks, etc, which consists of short curly hairs
2. yarn spun from the coat of sheep, etc, used in weaving, knitting, etc
3. 1. cloth or a garment made from this yarn
   2. (as modifier)a wool dress
4. any of certain fibrous materialsglass wool; steel wool
5. informal short thick curly hair
6. a tangled mass of soft fine hairs that occurs in certain plants
7. dyed in the wool confirmed in one’s beliefs or opinions
8. pull the wool over someone’s eyes to deceive or delude someone

n.

Old English wull, from Proto-Germanic *wulno (cf. Old Norse ull, Old Frisian wolle, Middle Dutch wolle, Dutch wol, Old High German wolla, German wolle, Gothic wulla), from PIE *wele- (cf. Sanskrit urna; Avestan varena; Greek lenos “wool;” Latin lana “wool,” vellus “fleece;” Old Church Slavonic vluna, Russian vulna, Lithuanian vilna “wool;” Middle Irish olann, Welsh gwlan “wool”). Figurative expression pull the wool over (someone’s) eyes is recorded from 1839, American English.

see all wool and a yard wide; pull the wool over someone’s eyes.