How to Use woolly in a Sentence

woolly

1 of 2 adjective
  • Up ahead, off to their left, a small woolly flock had gathered.
    — New York Times, 2 June 2021
  • And forget about woolly sweaters.
    — Monitor Staff, Christian Science Monitor, 19 Dec. 2025
  • As time ran out for the woolly rhino, strange things happened.
    — Susan Milius, Washington Post, 18 Sep. 2017
  • Join me next week as readers share their wild and woolly rug tales, yarns of woe, wonder and love.
    — Nola.com | The Times-Picayune, NOLA.com, 8 May 2017
  • Your wild and woolly rug merchant yarns have been stuffing my inbox.
    — NOLA.com, 15 May 2017
  • Red pandas are named for their thick, woolly layer of fur that has a rusty red color.
    — Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post, 30 Aug. 2019
  • Her lifelong dream is to tour Lapland in a sleigh drawn by woolly dogs.
    — Merve Emre, The New Yorker, 21 Dec. 2020
  • On the horizon appears a woolly shroud of smoke from a distant wildfire.
    — Guy Lodge, Variety, 13 Feb. 2026
  • The plush, woolly leaves of Berggarten sage are a cook’s dream and add a unique softness to the landscape.
    — Carol Crotta, latimes.com, 29 July 2017
  • As for the woolly mice themselves, their role is finite — but their future is secure.
    — Moná Thomas, PEOPLE, 22 Dec. 2025
  • These slip-ons offer woolly warmth and are breathable enough to avoid overheating.
    — Joe Jackson, Outside Online, 1 Feb. 2020
  • Texas is known for wild, unpredictable and woolly weather, but this is something else again.
    — Washington Post, 9 Mar. 2021
  • There are, as of this writing, no woolly mammoths yet trampling the permafrost.
    — Stephanie Hanes, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 July 2017
  • Shor wears oval glasses, his belly is rotund, his hair is woolly and white, and his beard is unkempt.
    — Stephen Witt, The New Yorker, 12 Dec. 2022
  • There's an ace-high spot in the wild and woolly Western town of Cheyenne, Wyo.
    — Gunnar Johnson, Sun-Sentinel.com, 19 July 2017
  • The woolly dogs, which resembled current-day Samoyeds, were not pets.
    — Alicia Ault, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Jan. 2024
  • Your wild and woolly rug-merchant yarns have been stuffing my inbox like a king-size pillow in a standard case.
    — Marni Jameson, The Denver Post, 18 May 2017
  • The first challenge was heat — which impaired the woolly llamas during the Smoky leg.
    — Cindy Chojnacky, idahostatesman, 30 Oct. 2017
  • Behind the woolly, wet dog, a wooden Cuban migrant boat was anchored.
    — David Goodhue, Pedro Portal, Anchorage Daily News, 3 Jan. 2023
  • This discovery shifts the blame for the woolly rhino’s demise away from prehistoric hunters.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 14 Jan. 2026
  • But more important than their woolly resolutions was the fact that the two sides were speaking at all.
    — The Economist, 11 July 2019
  • But even by his woolly standards, this 1984 power ballad is out there.
    — Jody Rosen, Los Angeles Times, 14 Dec. 2020
  • So the arrival of humans no longer coincides with the demise of woolly rhinos, the researchers said.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 13 Aug. 2020
  • But beneath these broad strokes, Watch Night’s arguments are woolly.
    — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 8 Nov. 2023
  • The large woolly leaves of the mullein were on the ground while its stem was in the air, its tall spikes spattered and speckled with bright yellow flowers.
    — Joan Acocella, The New Yorker, 10 Oct. 2022
  • That loss may soon include the woolly devil – which hasn’t been spotted since 2024.
    — Luis Melecio-Zambrano, Mercury News, 18 Jan. 2026
  • The compounds in the woolly caterpillar’s body lower its freezing point, buying it some time.
    — Kate Furby, Scientific American, 3 Mar. 2023
  • Last fall, Boggs collected a random group of woolly bears from a plant-rich area of Ohio.
    — Washington Post, 22 Nov. 2021
  • Guests were encouraged to bring a soft blanket or a plush toy as a substitute for the woolly animals.
    — Andrea Sachs, Washington Post, 20 Apr. 2020
  • Named Chip, this mouse, and his brother, Dale, were the first two woolly mice produced by Colossal.
    — Rob Stein, NPR, 4 Mar. 2026

woolly

2 of 2 noun
  • Get out your winter woollies.
  • The woolly, deeply-lobed foliage of dusty miller is covered in tiny silver hairs that give leaves a silver to white sheen.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 15 Sep. 2025
  • Wales, meanwhile, sings in slate and soul—its valleys dotted with woolly sheep and echoed by the lilting notes of male voice choirs drifting from chapel doors.
    — Lewis Nunn, Forbes.com, 14 Aug. 2025
  • Instead, researchers think one puppy’s last meal was the woolly rhinoceros.
    — Evan Bush, NBC news, 14 Jan. 2026
  • Towards the end of the last ice age, an ancient wolf feasted on a young woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis).
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 14 Jan. 2026
  • Come January, snow transforms the state into a watercolor of blues and whites—a painting flecked with glassy skating ponds and woolly evergreens.
    — Corey Buhay, Outside, 13 Nov. 2025
  • And these mammoths appear to form a distinct genetic cluster, and are all more closely related to each other than to any other woolly or Columbian mammoths.
    — John Timmer, ArsTechnica, 28 Aug. 2025
  • The similarity is so strong that even the team from the beloved children’s show gave their full backing to name the seahorse relative after Big Bird’s woolly pal.
    — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 13 May 2026
  • While there was never a historical woolly mouse, researchers intentionally chose mice for speed and feasibility.
    — Moná Thomas, PEOPLE, 22 Dec. 2025
  • Earlier this year, Colossal introduced the woolly mouse as a key proof point in its larger mission to eventually restore traits of the long-extinct woolly mammoth.
    — Moná Thomas, PEOPLE, 22 Dec. 2025
  • Identification of microbes The team used genomic and bioinformatic techniques to analyze the remains of woolly and steppe mammoths.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 2 Sep. 2025
  • Evolutionary biologists have long debated whether hunters or climate change ultimately doomed the woolly rhinoceros.
    — Evan Bush, NBC news, 14 Jan. 2026
  • To watch Farrell, one of our most soulful contemporary actors, giving his teenage all to a big number in How to Succeed—his eyes rimmed with that classic high-school drama department eyeliner—is to be forced to live in the wild-and-woolly moment.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 19 Sep. 2025
  • We were immediately greeted by a resplendence of wildflowers, including purple-pink woolly bluecurls, bright orange southern bush monkey flower, red bursts of cardinal catchfly and at least one Catalina Mariposa lily.
    — Jaclyn Cosgrove, Los Angeles Times, 14 May 2026
  • Surprisingly, the team found no evidence of inbreeding or harmful mutations increasing over time, suggesting the woolly rhinoceros maintained a large, stable population right up until its sudden disappearance.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 14 Jan. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'woolly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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