woof
woof Lexical Profile
woof Game Scores & Validity
• interjection
Used to imitate the deep barking sound made by a dog.
"The children giggled and shouted "Woof!" as they pretended to be puppies."
• noun
The deep, gruff barking sound made by a dog.
"The golden retriever greeted the mail carrier with a friendly woof at the front gate."
The crosswise threads on a loom that are passed over and under the lengthwise warp threads to make cloth; the weft.
"The weaver carefully selected a dyed wool yarn to serve as the woof for the tapestry."
• verb
To make a low, gruff barking sound (of a dog).
"The old hound woofed softly in his sleep while dreaming by the fireplace."
Word Nuance & Usage
In weaving, 'woof' (or 'weft') refers to the horizontal threads interlaced through the vertical 'warp' threads; the two terms are frequently paired in the idiom 'warp and woof' to describe the fundamental structure of something.
• Rhymes for woof
Word Origin & Etymology
The sense relating to a dog's bark is imitative in origin, emerging in the early 19th century. The textile sense derives from Old English 'owef', meaning 'that which is woven across', where the initial 'w' later developed under the influence of the verb 'weave'.