wool, n.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

wool n.¹

1. courage, fortitude, ‘character’; thus phr. great /much cry and little wool, much noise and little substance [orig. boxing jargon].

[1728		Derby Mercury 10 Oct. 2/3: Great Cry and little Wool — is now become, / The Plague and Proverb of the Weavers Loom. / No Wooll to work on, neither Weft, nor Warp, / Their Pockets empty, and their Stomachs sharp].
1761		Dublin Courier 15 Apr. 3/2: Great cry and little wool, as the devil said when he shore [sic] a pig.
1804		London Courier 21 June 1/2: This day is published [...] Great cry and little wool, or, the squads in an uproar; or, The progress of politics.
1815		London Courier 23 Feb. 4/3: Thus it is invariably almost with the Opposition — ‘Great cry and little wool;’ fierce assertions, feeble facts; large promises, little performance.
1823		Statesman (London) 24 July 3/1: There may be great cry and little wool. Much may have been said, and little done.
1830		Dublin Mercantile Advertiser 28 June 2/1: There is show of business making, while no business is doing. There is great cry and little wool. This much ado about nothing will continue.
1832		Satirist (London) 20 May 166/1: [of a man mistakenly trying to shear a pig] The sow squeaked [...] till the Devil [...] exclaimed, throwing the shears three thousand miles away, ‘By my hoofs! — there’s a d—d deal more noise than wool here!’.
1834		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Mar. 22 2/3: With this wiseacre it is ‘Great cry and little wool,’ as the Devil said when he sheared a hog.
1841		Hants. Advertiser 2 Oct. 5/3: [T]he hardened wretch did nothing but sneer at what he had done, saying [...] it was ‘a great cry and little wool’— it was only the small bone of her arm — she was not much hurt.
1852		Kentish Mercury 14 Feb. 4/6: The intended measure [...] realizes the old adage ‘great cry and little wool.’ We see nothing in the provisions of the Bill to sustain the great fuss thas has been made about it .
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 248: wool courage, pluck; ‘you are not half-woolled,’ term of reproach from one thief to another.
1867		Sportsman 3 Dec. 2/1: Notes on News [...] The fact being that it all case of ‘great cry and little wool’.
1871		Sportsman (London) ‘Notes on News’ 4 Mar. 4/1: [T]he Scotch clergy are always getting hysterical about something or another, we may safely opine that their ‘much cry’ will result in ‘little wool’.
1873		Sl. Dict. 342: Wool bravery, pluck. [...] The highest praise that can be bestowed on a man of courage in lower-class circles is that which characterizes him as being ‘a reg’lar wooled un,’ or ‘a rare wool-topped un.’.
1881		Newcastle Courant 2 Dec. 6/6: Now as you’ve gathered wool, perhaps ye’d like to go yourself.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 97: Wool, courage, pluck, daring, etc.
1895		Mirror of Life 23 Mar. 10/3: [of a boxer] There has been much cry and little wool about Jem Smith’s threats [...] his talk is simply frothy vapouring.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Dec. 18/3: Tolstoi for many years had been talking about other people’s sufferings, but he hadn’t been always rushing around to alleviate them. There was, in fact, much cry and comparatively little wool about Tolstoi’s life-work.
1938		Brooklyn Citizen (NY) 16 Mar. 8/7: In England it is ‘much cry and little wool’; in the USA it is all talk and no cider.

2. hair, esp. that of African-Americans.

1830		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) 3 July 3/2: If he does not pay the girl in ER. street [...] he will get his wool pulled.
1831		Navy at Home II 211: As Dan reached this critical part of his story, his nostrils dilated, his wool seemed to encrease in altitude, his eye balls glared.
[1836		T. Haliburton Clockmaker I 251: [of a black person] Clawin way at her head the whole time, to clear away the stuff that stuck to her wool].
1844		Tom Cladpole’s Jurney to Lunnun 29: Dat rais’d ma wool, an turnen roun, I thought to fix de hag.
1856		M. Griffith Autobiog. of a Female Slave 212: De barber, he had some wool growin’ on his upper lip jist like de quality men.
1858		Bell’s Life in Sydney 23 Oct. 3/3: A singularly ugly black man who has only a few grizzly locks ‘on the top of his head, tho place where the wool used to grow-ow-ow’.
1863		Nashville Daily Union 26 June 2/4: Negroes have been detected coming out of the city with notes to friends [...] carefully secreted in the convenient depth of Cuffy’s wool.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 129/1: The ‘judy’ who had hold of the jug [...] exasprated at losing her ‘shant,’ clutched the nearest one by the wool, and shook her like a carding machine.
1873		W.H. Thomes Slaver’s Adventures 193: The man was of the Pangwe tribe, noted for thick skulls and luxuriant wool.
1884		R.C. Hartranft Journal of Solomon Sidesplitter 131: ‘Why, master,’ replied Jack, scratching his wool, ‘pretty considerable for an old man.’.
1898		H. Macfall Wooings of Jezebel Pettyfer 325: Keep yo’r heads cool, boys, don’t yo’ git yo’r wool tangled into knots!
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Oct. 15/1: A curious suspicion in the bush, especially amongst shearers, has it that a man who has no hair on his chest is a thief. When a swag-strap or anything else is lost a chest-inspection is commenced. If no hairless chests are present, the man with the least wool gets blamed. Wonder how this originated?
1903		J. Furphy Such is Life 215: You’ll have Collins in your wool.
1910		‘O. Henry’ ‘A Municipal Report’ Strictly Business (1915) 156: He was a stalwart Negro [...] with gray wool and a face that reminded me of Brutus.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 4 Sept. 5/1: It was time Bill had his wool off.
1922		‘Uncle Ned’ in T.W. Talley Negro Folk Rhymes 61: Dere wusn’t no wool on de top o’ his head / In de place whar wool oughter grow.
1934		T. Wood Cobbers 88: Just like a blackfellow’s wool?
1941		Post (Lanarks.) 11 May 6/3: I lost my ‘wool’ due to shell shock from the 1914-18 war.
1946		‘Uncle Newton’ Ups and Downs of Newsy Wapps Bk 2 3: That shearing of our wool [...] that razoring, that twisting and turning of people’s heads.
1965		(con. 1930s) R. Wright Lawd Today 58: And that old stuck-up sonofabitch struts around bareheaded just to show off his slick wool.
1981		J. Bradner Danny Boy 47: In the breeze Oscar’s hair blew madly, and when it did, causing him to fret [...] Danny would look up at him, and pat his own ‘wool’ affectionately.
2007		N. McCall Them (2008) 21: Amos had a scraggy beard and a shock of salt–and–pepper wool that looked like an Afro.

3. (female) pubic hair and by extension, a woman as a sex object [metonymic use of sense 2].

[1608		Machin & Markham Dumbe Knight II i: wife col.: I but not eate of his mutton. pre.: Yet I may deep my bread in the woole, Mistresse Colloquintida. prat.: Goe to sirra, you will bee obscene].
[1895		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 12 Oct. 4/4: The charity push went out for wool, and came back shorn].
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
1970		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 226: Cock is a crickly creature, / all covered with wool. / It look like a monkey and smell like a bear, / but I wish my peter was there.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 175: My plans for Saturday are to lay around a lot and rest my legs and not eat anything but steak and eggs and fruit, and maybe some wool [ibid.] 280: Dreamer also said that me and him ought to get to know each other better in New York. Maybe chase some wool together.
1982		Maledicta VI:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 131: Pubes […] velvet, wig, wool.
1992		G.P. Pelecanos Firing Offense 112: [A] book of matches [...] which opened up to a pair of paper legs that spread to expose a thick patch of female ‘wool’ .
2012		G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 79: [They] were double-D gals with plenty of flank and ass, but to the diappointment and annoyance of Fanella, they showed no wool.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 74: Nude shots of ‘wild and woolly’ stewardesses. Samples of their wool taped to the pages.

In derivatives

woolled (adj.) [note Lincolnshire dial. good-woolled, said of a sheep that has a good fleece]

plucky, spirited; usu. as good-woolled.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum 127: good-wooled. A man of unflinching courage.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 248: ‘You are not half-woolled,’ term of reproach from one thief to another.
1866		Lincs. Chron. 9 Nov. 3/3: Good-woolled — Plucky.
1873		Sl. Dict. 342: Wool bravery, pluck. [...] The highest praise that can be bestowed on a man of courage in lower-class circles is that which characterizes him as being ‘a reg’lar wooled un,’ or ‘a rare wool-topped un.’.
1888		H. King Savage London 37: I was a rare lapper in them days, and you were a reg’lar wooled un to stand up to me then.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 33: Good-wooled, unflinching courage.

In phrases

all wool (adj.)

(Aus./US) excellent, first-class.

1900		H. Garland Eagle’s Heart 55: Jack is my chum; I’d trust him with my life. He’s all wool.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 6 Mar. 5/3: Summarily sacking every colored person about his premises [...] leaving both pubs as all-wool White Australian.
1907		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Missing Chord’ Heart of the West 239: Standing by it was the good, fine, all-wool girl that never let him know it.

all wool and a yard wide (adj.) [advertising copy for clothing trade promotions, orig. by the J O Ballard woollen mill at Malone, NY]

1. of people, excellent, dependable.

1882		G.W. Peck Peck’s Sunshine 85: You want to pick out a thoroughbred, that is, all wool, a yard wide – that is, understand me, I don’t want the girl to be a yard wide, but just right.
1884		C.F. Lummis letter 16 Oct. in Byrkit Letters from the Southwest (1989) 27: Here, too, I met my first all-wool-and-a-yard-wide cowboy.
1889		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 9 Nov. 2/1: For a clean cut. all wool, yard-and-a-half wide prevaricator. Miss Annie Green [...] wins the wishbone.
1890		Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 4 Jan. 8/1: [US speaker] I am all wool and a yard wide, been tested, and never shrink.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 15 Apr. 4/8: Put it there, Mr Rayle Straddler! [...] You are a partiot, all wool and a yard wide.
1896		Mirror of Life 18 Apr. 3/2: [W]e observed ‘Colonel’ Coleman in Paris last week looking as fit as a fiddle [...] the ‘Colonel’ is all wool and a yard wide.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 17 Dec. 4/7: They are straight as twin pieces of string are, / All wool and a legal yard wide.
1909		F.B. Calhoun Miss Minerva 204: You sho’ is genoowine corn-fed, sterlin’ silver, all-wool-an’-a-yard-wide, pure-leaf, Green-River Lolapaloosas [DA].
1910		N.Y. Tribune 11 Sept. 7/3: They’re all wool and a yard —.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 106: ‘You’ve got the real goods of a fighter in Billy,’ Bert assured her; ‘a yard long and a yard wide and genuine A Number One, long-fleeced wool.’.
1926		in J.F. Dobie Rainbow in Morning (1965) 86: She’s all wool and a yard wide.
1927		C. Woofter ‘Dialect Words and Phrases from West-Central West Virginia’ in AS II:8 347: all wool and a yard wide (noun phrase), an expression which guarantees quality. ‘That suit is all wool and a yard wide.’.
1933		W.R. Burnett Dark Hazard (1934) 62: You’re all O.K., all wool and a yard wide.
1963		(con. 1944) L. Glassop Rats in New Guinea 215: That cobber of yours you call Groucho is a real soldier. Only little, but all wool and a bloody yard wide.
1974		‘A. Gilbert’ Nice Little Killing iii 40: No one will ever catch her...with an alibi all wool and a yard wide [OED].
1988		(con. 1930s) C.E. Lincoln The Avenue, Clayton City (1996) 114: Reverend Russo, you’re all wool and a yard wide.

2. (N.Z.) fat.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

get one’s wool up (v.)

to lose one’s temper, to become aggressive.

1834

Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) 15 Mar. 2/3: Caesar too, has got his wool up so de anger in de eye strike de fire ob de shin.

have someone/something by the wool (v.) (also have someone/something where the wool is tight, …where the wool is worn off the top of his head )

see have someone/something by the short and curlies under short and curlies n.

in the woolhole [printers’ j. ‘Going to the Wool-Hole. What is the derivation of this term as applied to distrefted printers being in a condition to apply for workhouse relief? Formerly, before we had composition rollers, prefemen used balls made by themselves, which were stuffed with wool, and then covered with composition. Whenever these required re-making-up, the wool used to be cast aside in a lumber-hole in the press-room, and it has often happened that an intoxicated member of the bar has resorted to the wool-hole for a quiet ‘mike’ or slumber. This caused the ‘wool-hole’ to be spoken of as a refuge for the destitute or unfortunate in the same way as the workhouse is alluded to’ C.T. Jacobi Gesta Typographica (1897)]

in financial difficulties, forced into the workhouse.

1895

Mirror of Life 3 Aug. 10/4: Woolley finds himself in the woolhole—in other words, he cannot find the side bet.

knock the wool out of someone’s head (v.)

(N.Z.) to wake up; to think (or make someone else think) clearly.

1907		W.H. Koebel Return of Joe 40: Seems to have knocked some of the wool out of my head already.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 123: knock the wool out of his/her head Help someone think more clearly. Early C20.

lose one’s wool (v.) (also get one’s wool off)

to lose one’s temper.

c.1905		J. Furphy Rigby’s Romance Ch. 14 🌐 You ain’t my boss; so you needn’t be gettin’ yer bloody wool off.
1907		Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. 4 Feb. 4/6: What wonder that the Governor of Jamaica ‘lost his wool’ a but when he found he had no longer help from the British.
1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 207: Teddy Dunn ‘lost his wool.’.
1921		Aberdeen Jrnl 10 Oct. 3/6: There was some straight talkand that was why the Lord Provost ‘lost his wool’.
1931		Western Gaz. 13 Nov. 4/2: One would not say he lost his temper, but to use another phrase Mr Sweetman had used, he ‘lost his wool’.
1934		E. Raymond Child of Norman’s End (1967) 268: I nearly lost my wool with him myself last night.
1940		M. Marples Public School Slang 3: to lose one’s hair, to get one’s wool off:to be angry.

pull someone’s wool (v.)

1. (US) to get angry with.

1898

H. Macfall Wooings of Jezebel Pettyfer 14: My mother’s she’s comin’ back for me [...] Den peradventure she’s goin’ to pull yo’ wool for yo’.

2. (Aus.) to annoy, to drive into a temper.

1924

C.J. Dennis ‘The Faltering Knight’ in Chisholm (1951) 73: ‘Cool orf,’ ’e sez. ‘It’s plain your wool / ’As been pulled ’ard this mornin’.’.

In exclamations

keep your wool on! (also hold your wool on!)

calm down! don’t lose (emotional) control!

1901		Marvel XV:373 Jan. 10: Hold yer wool on, pard!
1908		Magnet 15 Feb. 3: Oh, keep your wool on!
1923		P. MacGill Moleskin Joe 284: Keep your blasted wool on!
1937		J. Curtis There Ain’t No Justice 185: ‘Hurry up. We got a lot of work to-day if you’re to fight to-morrow.’ ‘All right. Keep your wool on.’.
1940		O. Strange Sudden Takes the Trail 130: Keep yore wool on, John; we’re an easy mark.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 272: OK, OK, keep your wool on. None of us’ll know for sure what’s coming till things are wound up.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

wool barber (n.) (also wool-chopper)

(Aus.) a sheep-shearer.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Aug. 6/4: The reason of his ‘down’ on shearers can be readily seen when you hear of the little speech he made to the wool-choppers who were signing the agreement: ‘Stand back, my men – one at a time. I wost my gold wepeatah this time last yeeah.’.
1961		T. Ronan Only a Short Walk 18: What did this mob of wool-barbers and tar-boys know about murder?
1984		J. Carson in Ammon Working Lives 191: During the shearing season the passing teams of ‘wool barbers’ helped a lot.

wool-bird (n.) (also woolly bird)

(UK Und.) a sheep, a lamb; also attrib.; thus wing of a woolbird, a shoulder of lamb.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1791		‘Flash Lang.’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 18: A sheep, a woolly bird.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1825		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I 247: ‘Only one dish,’ said George [...] ‘And what may that be?’ said the prince. ‘The wing of a wool-bird,’ replied the facetious colonel.
1856		H. Mayhew Great World of London I 46: Those sneaksmen who purloin animals, are either horse-stealers or ‘woolly bird’ (sheep) stealers.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 96: woodbird [sic] A sheep.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 248: woolbird a lamb; ‘wing of a woolbird,’ a shoulder of lamb.
1861		H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor IV 26: Those who steal animals. [...] ii. Sheep, or ‘Woolly-bird,’ Stealers.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 11: Woolbird - A lamb. ‘Wing of a woolbird,’ a shoulder of lamb.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 97: Wool Bird, a lamb; ‘a leg of a wool-bird,’ a leg of mutton.

wool-bug (n.) [bug n.¹ (1)/ bug n.⁴ (2b)]

(N.Z.) a sheep-shearer.

1926		J. Devanny Butcher Shop 54: He pictured the shearers, the ‘woolbugs’, in their dirt and grease.
1988		(ref. to 1890–1940) McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 124/2: woolbug shearer, 1890–1940.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

wool-grower (n.)

1. in boxing, the head.

1858

A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 191: Then they went to work slogging, Jack delivering a ‘head-acher’ on the ‘wool-grower.’.

2. (Aus.) a sheep farmer.

1968

S. Gore Holy Smoke 25: Some of you jokers ’d be woolgrowers, I s’pose?

wool hat (n.) (also wool-hat boy) [their stereotypical headgear; urbanites wear silk hats]

(US) a rural person, thus attrib.

1830		Amer. Sentinel 27 Aug. 2/2: Formerly the supporters of General Jackson were said to be the rowdies, the wool hats, the filthy mechanics, &c [DA].
1927		K. Eubank Horse and Buggy Days 170: I was a smart boy from town, and this particular guy thought I was a wool-hat boy [DA].
1933		S. Walker Night Club Era 128: [T]he jottings of the wool hat correspondent from Frog Hollow.
1950		Chicago Trib. 25 May 14/2: Whether a wool hat boy would know the requirements of old time courtesy is not within our knowledge [DA].
1965		A. Green in Journal of Amer. Folklore 🌐 At one time or another Southern local colorists used these analogs for poor white: [...] woolhat.

wool-hawk (n.)

(Aus.) a skilful shearer.

1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Nov. 14/2: Let ‘E.J.M.’ send his cobber [...] out to Western Queensland, and if I can’t mobilise at least 50 wool-hawks to shear him blind I will forfeit my tame grandmother.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.

wool-hole (n.) [orig. printers’ jargon, an old or unemployed printer described himself as being in the wool-hole, a fig. use of wool-hole, defined in Savage’s Dict. of Printing (1841) as ‘a place boxed off sometimes under a stair case, or in any situation where the dust will not affect the press room, in which the wool is carded wherewith to make the balls’]

the workhouse.

1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1895		Mirror of Life 16 Feb. 14/1: Strange that ‘grand scrappers’ should come to show their prowess in the woolhole, and others who are not ‘grand scrappers’ should live in clover, and sport sealskin, sables, and fine attire.
1929		Advertiser (Adelaide) 25 Oct. 32/7: The best of the ‘woolholes’ (workhouses) are given honorable mention, and all the ‘ganny vials’ (towns where the police dislike hawkers and tramps) are listed.

woolworm (n.)

(US Und.) a shoplifter specializing in woollen garments.

1951