wolf

Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily.

Noun

  1. Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily.
    • He would listen quietly at meetings of the Politburo, or to distinguished visitors, puffing at his Dunhill pipe, doodling aimlessly - his secretaries Poskrebyshev and Dvinsky write that his pads were sometimes covered...

    Synonyms: grey wolf

    1. Any of several related canines that resemble Canis lupus in appearance, especially those of the genus Canis.

      Synonyms: grey wolf

  2. A man who makes amorous advances to many women.
  3. A wolf tone or wolf note.
    • The soft violin solo was marred by persistent wolves.
  4. Any very ravenous, rapacious, or destructive person or thing; especially, want; starvation.
    • They toiled hard to keep the wolf from the door.
    • the bee wolf
    • “[…] Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. Oh, dear, there's so much to tell you, so many warnings to give you, but all that must be postponed for the moment.” - 1918,...
  5. One of the destructive, and usually hairy, larvae of several species of beetles and grain moths.
  6. A white worm which infests granaries, the larva of Nemapogon granella, a tineid moth.
  7. A wolf spider (Lycosidae spp.).
  8. An eating ulcer or sore. See lupus.
    • If God should send a cancer upon thy face, or a wolf into thy side - 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC:
  9. A willying machine, that uses willow twigs to cleanse wool.
    • The loosening and purifying of the raw cotton from the various impurities , such as sand, grit, &c., is accomplished by beating with the hand, or by the Wolf machine, by means of a cylinder, the surface of which is...

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *wl̥kʷós? Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos Proto-Germanic *wulfaz Proto-West Germanic *wulf Old English wulf Middle English wolf English wolf Inherited from Middle English wolf, from Old English wulf, ƿulf, from Proto-West Germanic *wulf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos. Doublet of lobo and lupus. Cognates Cognate with Scots wouf, North Frisian wulew, Saterland Frisian and German Low German Wulf, West Frisian, Alemannic German, and Dutch wolf, Bavarian bolf, bölf, Woif, Cimbrian and Mòcheno bolf, German Wolf, Luxembourgish Wollef, Vilamovian wuf, Yiddish וואָלף (volf), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk ulv, Faroese úlvur, Icelandic úlfur, Swedish ulf, ulv, Gothic 𐍅𐌿𐌻𐍆𐍃 (wulfs); also Irish and Scottish Gaelic olc (“bad, evil”), Lepontic 𐌖𐌋𐌊𐌏𐌔 (ulkos), Manx olk (“bad”), Sanskrit वृक (vṛ́ka), Persian گرگ (gorg),...

Forms

wolves

Synonyms

loafer lobo lofer loper lover

Hypernyms

Canis lupus canid

Hyponyms

she-wolf wolfess Abyssinian wolf African golden wolf African wolf Alaskan tundra wolf Alexander Archipelago wolf Alsatian wolf dog Antarctic wolf Apennine wolf Arctic wolf arctic wolf Bernard's wolf Chinese wolf Ethiopian wolf Eurasian wolf European wolf Ezo wolf Falkland Islands wolf Falkland Island wolf Florida black wolf Great Plains wolf Greenland wolf Gregory's wolf

Derived

aard-wolf aardwolf aphid wolves Arctic wolf spider Big Bad Wolf brush wolf buy wolf tickets cry wolf Desertas wolf spider dire wolf eastern wolf Futsing wolf snake ghost wolf have the wolf by the ear he-wolf hungry like the wolf keep the wolf from the door like a wolf on the fold Lone Wolf lone wolf maned wolf man is a wolf to man man-wolf mer-wolf

Verb

  1. To devour; to gobble; to eat (something) voraciously.
    • "Here's these legal ferrets has got our Puddin' in their clutches, and here's us, spellbound with anguish, watchin' them wolfin' it." - 1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 150:
    • After a wolfed burger dinner, I called the night number at Administrative Vice and inquired about known lesbian gathering places. - 1987, James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia:
    • Vicars seated himself and began wolfing a sandwich. - 2013, Neil Martin, Collected Stories of the Sea:
  2. To make amorous advances to many women; to hit on women; to cruise for sex.
    • [1940s Chicago punk:] ‘I’ve seen a thing or two in my time,’ he still liked to boast, ‘that was how I found out the best place for wolfin’ ain’t the taverns. It ain’t in dance halls ’r on North Clark on Saturday night....
  3. To hunt for wolves.

Forms

wolfs wolfing wolfed wolve

Synonyms

gulp down wolf down