woolly

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   covered with wool or with dense, soft hair resembling wool

   The foetus develops a fine woolly covering before birth.

2. 2
   adj

   made of wool or of a soft material that resembles it

   She pulled on a woolly hat before walking into the snow.

3. 3
   adj

   figurative: vague, confused, or insufficiently thought through

   The proposal remained woolly because it gave no dates or measurable goals.

From Middle English wolly, formed from wool + -y. The figurative sense compares unclear thought or language to a mass of tangled, indistinct fibres.

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