as in daydreaming
the state of being lost in thought
my woolgathering was abruptly interrupted by a question from the flight attendant
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Recent Examples of woolgathering
Today, woolgathering sounds harmless – one wanders contentedly among the hedgerows.
—
Melissa Mohr, The Christian Science Monitor, 11 July 2022
All this woolgathering about AGAD has inspired me to fire up the Idea Oven again for old time’s sake.
—Eric Zorn, chicagotribune.com, 30 Apr. 2021
Melissa Mohr, The Christian Science Monitor, 11 July 2022
All this woolgathering about AGAD has inspired me to fire up the Idea Oven again for old time’s sake.
—Eric Zorn, chicagotribune.com, 30 Apr. 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for woolgathering
Noun
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In the album’s most beautiful moments, Triplin makes arpeggios sound like prancing through an earthly paradise and sands off juke’s rough edges to produce rhythms that seem to chug along in the margins of a daydreaming brain.—
Kiana Mickles,
Pitchfork,
5 Mar. 2026
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These cuts enable us to spend more time daydreaming and less time in the salon.—
Loren Savini,
Allure,
14 Feb. 2026
Noun
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In that film, unassuming victims are put into a hypnotic trance by a psychic killer to then do his murdering for him, only for that violence to become even more contagious.—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
25 Mar. 2026
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Then, the repetitive descending melody is interrupted and restarts; in this musical rupture the trance is broken.—
Holden Seidlitz,
New Yorker,
20 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Woolgathering.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/woolgathering. Accessed 6 Apr. 2026.
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