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. See also Saterland Frisian Wulf, West Frisian and Dutch wolf, German Wolf, Norwegian and Danish ulv; also Sanskrit वृक (vṛ́ka), Persian گرگ (gorg), Lithuanian vilkas, Russian волк (volk), Albanian ujk, Latin lupus, Greek λύκος (lýkos), Tocharian B walkwe. Doublet of lobo and lupus.

• enPR: wo͝olf
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /wʊlf/

    • Audio (Received Pronunciation); “a wolf”:

      (file)

  • (General American) IPA^(key): /wʊlf/, [wʊɫf], [wɵɫf]

    • Audio (General American):

      (file)

    • (Southern US) IPA^(key): [wʟ̩ːf]^[1]
  • (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /wʊlf/, [wʊwf]
  • (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /wʉlf/
• enPR: wo͝of, IPA^(key): /wʊf/ (now nonstandard)^[2][3]
• enPR: wŭlf, IPA^(key): /wʌlf/ (obsolete)
• Rhymes: -ʊlf

wolf (plural wolves)

2. (countable) Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily.

   Synonym: grey wolf

   • 1968, Robert Conquest, “The Purge Begins”, in The Great Terror: Stalin's Purge of the Thirties‎^[1], Macmillan Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 74:

     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 with the phrase ‘Lenin-teacher-friend’, but the last foreigner to visit him, in February 1953, noted that he was doodling wolves.

   1. Any of several related canines that resemble Canis lupus in appearance, especially those of the genus Canis.
3. A man who makes amorous advances to many women.
4. (music) A wolf tone or wolf note.

   The soft violin solo was marred by persistent wolves.

5. (figurative) 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

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 85:

     “ […] 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.”

6. One of the destructive, and usually hairy, larvae of several species of beetles and grain moths.
7. A white worm which infests granaries, the larva of Nemapogon granella, a tineid moth.
8. A wolf spider.
9. (obsolete) An eating ulcer or sore. See lupus.
   • 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC:

     If God should send a cancer upon thy face, or a wolf into thy side

10. A willying machine, to cleanse wool or willow.
    • 1872, Johann Rudolph von Wagner, A handbook of Chemical Technology:

      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 covered with sharp iron teeth

• loafer, lobo, lofer, loper, lover (Southwestern US dialects)

• (large wild canid): Canis lupus, canid

• (large wild canid): she-wolf, wolfess

• (large wild canid): dingo, dog (members of Canis lupus not called wolf); coyote, jackal, fox (other canids)

• → Ido: volfo (also from German)
• → Marshallese: oļip

• “wolf”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

wolf (third-person singular simple present wolfs, present participle wolfing, simple past and past participle wolfed)

1. (transitive) To devour; to gobble; to eat (something) voraciously.
   • 1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 150:

     "Here's these legal ferrets has got our Puddin' in their clutches, and here's us, spellbound with anguish, watchin' them wolfin' it."

   • 1987, James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia:

     After a wolfed burger dinner, I called the night number at Administrative Vice and inquired about known lesbian gathering places.

   • 2013, Neil Martin, Collected Stories of the Sea:

     Vicars seated himself and began wolfing a sandwich.

2. (intransitive, slang) To make amorous advances to many women; to hit on women; to cruise for sex.
   • 1949, Nelson Algren, The Man with the Golden Arm:

     [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. It’s in the front row in Sunday school on Sunday mornin’. Oh yeh, I know a thing or two, I been around.’

3. (intransitive) To hunt for wolves.

• wolve (rare)

• (devour, gobble): gulp down, wolf down

• “wolf”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• wolf on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• flow, fowl

From Dutch wolf, from Middle Dutch wolf, from Old Dutch *wulf, *wolf, from Proto-West Germanic *wulf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos.

• Audio:

  (file)

wolf (plural wolwe)

1. (countable) wolf (Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily)

From Middle High German wolf, from Old High German wolf, from Proto-West Germanic *wulf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz. Cognate with German Wolf, Dutch wolf, English wolf, Icelandic úlfur.

wolf m

1. (Carcoforo, Formazza, Gressoney, Issime, Rimella and Campello Monti, countable) wolf (Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily)

• Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

From Middle Dutch wolf, from Old Dutch *wulf, from Proto-West Germanic *wulf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos.

• IPA^(key): /ʋɔlf/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: wolf
• Rhymes: -ɔlf

wolf m (plural wolven, diminutive wolfje n, feminine wolvin)

1. (countable) wolf (Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily)

   Ze gingen de wolven bekijken in de dierentuin.

   They went to look at the wolves in the zoo.

2. one of many other canids of the family Canidae, especially of the genus Canis

   Er bestaan verschillende soorten wolven.

   Various species of wolves exist.

• hondachtige

• hond

• roedel

• welp

• Afrikaans: wolf
• Jersey Dutch: wâlf
• Negerhollands: wuluwuluk
  • → Virgin Islands Creole: wuluwuluk (dated)

Derived from English wolf.

wolf

1. (countable) wolf (Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily)
   • 2000, “Matthew 10”, in Joseph Grimes, transl., Da Jesus Book: Hawaii Pidgin New Testament‎^[2], Wycliffe Bible Translators, →ISBN, page 29:

     You know, I sending you guys out jalike sheeps, an you guys goin go wea da wild wolfs stay. So you guys gotta tink, jalike da snakes, an no hurt nobody, jalike da doves.

     See, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. Be therefore as wise as serpents, and as innocent as doves.

From Old Dutch *wulf, from Proto-West Germanic *wulf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos.

wolf m

1. wolf, grey wolf

• wēerwolf

• Dutch: wolf
  • Afrikaans: wolf
  • Jersey Dutch: wâlf
  • Negerhollands: wuluwuluk
    • → Virgin Islands Creole: wuluwuluk (dated)
• Limburgish: wólf

• “wolf (I)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “wolf (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I

• wolfe, woulf, wulf

From Old English wulf, from Proto-West Germanic *wulf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos.

• IPA^(key): /wulf/

wolf (plural wolves, diminutive wolfy, wolfie)

1. (countable) wolf (Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily)
2. (figurative) terrifying person

• English: wolf
  • → Ido: volfo (also from German)
  • → Marshallese: oļip
• Middle Scots: wolf, woulf
  • Scots: wouf, oof, ouf, woof

Inherited from Old High German wolf, from Proto-West Germanic *wulf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos.

• IPA^(key): (before 13^th CE) /ˈwɔlf/

wolf m

1. (countable) wolf (Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily)

• Alemannic German: wolf (Italian Walser)
• Bavarian: Woif, Wolf

  Cimbrian: bolf

  Mòcheno: bolf

  Udinese: bolf, bölf

• German: Wolf
• Hunsrik: Wollef
• Luxembourgish: Wollef
• Pennsylvania German: Wolf
• Vilamovian: wūf
• Yiddish: וואָלף (volf)

From Proto-West Germanic *wulf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz.

• IPA^(key): /wolf/

wolf m (plural wolfa)

1. (countable) wolf (Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily)

• wolfbizzo
• Wolfgang

• Middle High German: wolf
  • Alemannic German: wolf (Italian Walser)
  • Bavarian: Woif, Wolf

    Cimbrian: bolf

    Mòcheno: bolf

    Udinese: bolf, bölf

  • German: Wolf
  • Hunsrik: Wollef
  • Luxembourgish: Wollef
  • Pennsylvania German: Wolf
  • Vilamovian: wūf
  • Yiddish: וואָלף (volf)

wolf (plural wolves)

1. alternative form of wouf
   • 1904, “John X”, in William Wye Smith, transl., The New Testament in Braid Scots‎^[3], Paisley: Alexander Gardner, page 130:

     But the orra man for a fee, wha isna the herd, and auchts‐na the sheep, whan he sees the wolf comin doon, lea’s them and flees ; and the wolf grips them, and skails them abreid.

     The hired hand sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep and runs away because they do not belong to him. The wolf attacks and scatters the flock.

From Old Frisian wolf, from Proto-West Germanic *wulf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos.

wolf c (plural wolven, diminutive wolfke)

1. (countable) wolf (Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily)

• “wolf”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011