Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • The wool of lambs, used in manufacture; hence, delicate wool, as of certain breeds of sheep or of lambs, or of mixed varieties, used for the manufacture of hosiery.
  • Ale mixed with sugar, nutmeg, and the pulp of roasted apples.

Etymologies

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Examples

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  • A favourite liquor among the common people, composed of ale and roasted apples. The pulp of the roasted apple was worked up with the ale until this mixture formed a smooth beverage.

    Fanciful etymologies for this popular word have been thought of, but it was probably named for its smoothness, resembling the wool of lambs.

    Robert Nares, Glossary of the Works of English Authors, 1859

    February 4, 2009

  • "Robert Herrick's poem Twelfe-Night, or King and Queene (published 1648) describes the election of king and queen by bean and pea in a plum cake, and the homage done to them by the draining of wassail bowls of "lamb's-wool", a drink of sugar, nutmeg, ginger and ale."

    --From the Wikipedia article about Twelfth Night

    January 5, 2011

  • (noun) - (1) A favorite liquor among the common people, composed of ale and roasted apples. The pulp of the roasted apple was worked up with the ale till the mixture formed a smooth beverage. Fanciful etymologies for this popular word have been thought of, but it was probably named from its smoothness, resembling the wool of lambs. --Robert Nares' Glossary of the Works of English Authors, 1859 (2) The pulpe of the roasted apples, in number foure or five, according to the greatnesse of the apples, mixed in a quart of faire water, laboured together untill it come to be as apples and ale, which we call lambes-wooll. --Thomas Johnson's Gerard's Herball, 1633 (3) A corruption of la mas ubhal, that is, the day of the apple fruit. --Rev. John Boag's Imperial Lexicon, c. 1850

    April 23, 2018