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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

woolly bear en · NOUN

Meanings

  1. (colloquial) A hairy caterpillar.
    • The true Australian Tiger-Moths are few in number, the wings mostly white with dark spots and the body often red. Ardices glatignyi is a very common and typical species. The larva is a typeical "Woolly Bear," reddish brown in colour and very hairy. 1926, Robin John Tillyard, The Insects of Australia and New Zealand, page 441:
    • Caryæ is not a woolly bear, but is quite as densely covered with hairs and crawls quite as fast as any woolly bear. 1902, Ida Mitchell Eliot, Caaroline Gray Soule, Caterpillars and Their Moths, page 204:
    • It may be added that during 1919 a different woolly bear (Teracotoma submaculata Wk.) was noticeably abundant and mischievous in the gardens at Port Elizabeth. 1921, Agricultural Journal, volume 2, page 403:
    • In spring a Woolly Bear spins a cocoon made out of its woolly hair. It uses its silk to hold the hairs together. The adult moth emerges several weeks later. 2000, Jonathan P. Latimer, Karen Stray Nolting, Caterpillars, page 38:
    • Kellogg calls it the 'wooliest woolly bear,' and notes that 'hedgehog' is a popular name. 1927, C. Fitzhugh Talman, “A caterpillar Weather prophet(?)”, in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, page 183:
  2. (colloquial) A hairy caterpillar. ▸ A larva of the species Pyrrharctia isabellaa of arctiid moths.
  3. (historical, slang) An explosive shell that gives out dense smoke when it bursts.
    • ‘A Woolly Bear was used for demolition, and could be compared with our 5.9's. It burst on impact, made a big hole and left a tremendous cloud of black smoke.’ 2000, Harold A Skaarup, Whiz Bangs and Woolly Bears, page 12:
    • As Bourne came out, he could see shells exploding by the dump, with some shrapnel bursting, woolly-bears they called them, overhead. 1929, Frederic Manning, The Middle Parts of Fortune, Vintage, published 2014, page 236:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
wooly bear alternative lexicographic
woolly bears Number=Plur lexicographic

Synonyms

wooly bear · woolly worm · woolly bear caterpillar · isabella tiger moth · woolly worm

Translations (9)

fr fumigène (explosive shell) · de Haarraupe (hairy caterpillar) · fr chenille hérissonne (larva of a moth of the family Arctiidae) · de behaarte Raupe (hairy caterpillar) · de Bärenspinnerraupe (larva of a moth of the family Arctiidae) · ceb sapiring (hairy caterpillar) · de haarige Raupe (hairy caterpillar) · sv björnspinnarlarv (hairy caterpillar) · nl behaarde rups (hairy caterpillar)