Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of several carnivorous mammals of the genus Canis, especially the gray wolf of northern regions, that typically live and hunt in packs.
- noun The fur of such an animal.
- noun Any of various similar or related mammals, such as the hyena.
- noun The destructive larva of any of various moths, beetles, or flies.
- noun One that is regarded as predatory, rapacious, and fierce.
- noun Slang A man who habitually makes aggressive sexual advances to women.
- noun A harshness in some tones of a bowed stringed instrument produced by defective vibration.
- noun Dissonance in perfect fifths on a keyboard instrument tuned to a system of unequal temperament.
- transitive verb To eat greedily or voraciously.
- idiom (wolf at the door) Creditors or a creditor.
- idiom (wolf in sheep's clothing) One who feigns congeniality while actually holding malevolent intentions.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To hunt for wolves.
- To devour ravenously: as, to
wolf down food. - noun A digitigrade carnivorous canine quadruped, Cants lupus, of the lupine or thoöid series of Canidæ; hence, some similar animal.
- noun A person noted for ravenousness, cruelty, cunning, or the like: used in opprobrium.
- noun In entomology:
- noun A small naked caterpillar, the larva of Tinea granella, the wolf-moth, which infests granaries.
- noun The larva of a bot-fly; a warble.
- noun A tuberculous excrescence which rapidly eats away the flesh. See
lupus , 3. - noun In music:
- noun The harsh discord heard in certain chords of keyboard-instruments, especially the organ, when tuned on some system of unequal temperament.
- noun A chord or interval in which such a discord appears.
- noun In instruments of the viol class, a discordant or false vibration in a string when stopped at a certain point, usually due to a defect in the structure or adjustment of the instrument. Sometimes called
wolf-note . - noun A wooden fence placed across a ditch in the corner of a field, to prevent cattle from straying into another field by means of the ditch.
- noun Same as
willow .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of wild and savage carnivores belonging to the genus Canis and closely allied to the common dog. The best-known and most destructive species are the European wolf (
Canis lupus ), the American gray, or timber, wolf (Canis occidentalis ), and the prairie wolf, or coyote. Wolves often hunt in packs, and may thus attack large animals and even man. - noun (Zoöl.) One of the destructive, and usually hairy, larvæ of several species of beetles and grain moths.
- noun Fig.: Any very ravenous, rapacious, or destructive person or thing; especially, want; starvation.
- noun A white worm, or maggot, which infests granaries.
- noun obsolete An eating ulcer or sore. Cf.
Lupus . - noun The harsh, howling sound of some of the chords on an organ or piano tuned by unequal temperament.
- noun In bowed instruments, a harshness due to defective vibration in certain notes of the scale.
- noun (Textile Manuf.) A willying machine.
- noun (Zoöl.) A black variety of the American gray wolf.
- noun (Zoöl.) the Thibetan wolf (
Canis laniger ); -- called alsochanco . - noun (Zoöl.) an Asiatic wolf (
Canis pallipes ) which somewhat resembles a jackal. Called alsolandgak . - noun (Zoöl.) the coyote.
- noun (Zoöl.) See in the Vocabulary.
- noun (Zoöl.) the striped hyena.
- noun (Zoöl.) the zebra wolf.
- noun (Zoöl.) the spotted hyena.
- noun to keep away poverty; to prevent starvation. See
Wolf , 3, above. - noun (Zoöl.) A dog bred between a dog and a wolf, as the Eskimo dog.
- noun (Zoöl.) a wolf fish.
- noun (Zoöl.) any one of several species of large, voracious marine fishes of the genus Anarrhichas, especially the common species (
Anarrhichas lupus ) of Europe and North America. These fishes have large teeth and powerful jaws. Called alsocatfish ,sea cat ,sea wolf ,stone biter , andswinefish . - noun a kind of net used in fishing, which takes great numbers of fish.
- noun (Bot.) the tomato, or love apple (
Lycopersicum esculentum ).
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Of all these the grey wolf is the most common, and is _par excellence the wolf_; but there are districts in which individuals of other colours predominate.
Popular Adventure Tales Mayne Reid 1850
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Of all these the grey wolf is the most common, and is _par excellence the wolf_; but there are districts in which individuals of other colours predominate.
The Young Voyageurs Boy Hunters in the North Mayne Reid 1850
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One howlin 'wolf is awesome enough ... but three???
One howlin' wolf is awesome enough...but three??? Zenmomma 2009
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Zenmomma's Garden: One howlin 'wolf is awesome enough ... but three???
One howlin' wolf is awesome enough...but three??? Zenmomma 2009
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I think a certain wolf is starting to snarl about it being time for his story.
Q & A Nalini Singh 2009
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One howlin 'wolf is awesome enough ... but three???
Archive 2009-06-01 Zenmomma 2009
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I think a certain wolf is starting to snarl about it being time for his story.
Q & A Nalini Singh 2009
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The Lakota say "we are all reletives", the wolf is our brother and deserves our respect.
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The Lakota say "we are all reletives", the wolf is our brother and deserves our respect.
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In other words, the wolf is a "persistence predator."
Michael Boblett: Dogs Make Great Running Coaches! Michael Boblett 2010
oroboros commented on the word wolf
Flow in reverse.
November 2, 2007
lampbane commented on the word wolf
"When you enter Gladiator Arena keep an eye out for Wolf! Able to smell fear and always going for the jugular, Wolf is 230-pounds of primal fury. He will ferociously defend his turf... and thrives on the opportunity to sink his teeth into any challenge."
(Official biography on the NBC American Gladiators website)
September 6, 2008
wolfnotes commented on the word wolf
From Wikipedia:
Not to be confused with Wolfe Tone, a leader in the Irish independence movement of the late 18th century.
November 5, 2008
benny4words commented on the word wolf
Would wolf and golf rhyme? They must do because they are spelt similarly and why would you pronounce them differently?
February 5, 2009
bilby commented on the word wolf
Primarily because the original spelling of wolf was wulf and the pronunciation is a relic of that.
February 5, 2009
Louises commented on the word wolf
Sometimes he was the Red Riding Hood wolf, or the wolf spoke with his voice. You'll be seeing me very soon. I could feel you close all day. Me too. Sometimes he was just himself, invisibly next to me on the couch, the source - as in heat source or light source - of unloneliness. The way sometimes he'd put his hand in the small of my back. It was as if my consciousness that was terrified of having to go back to being alone. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan.
March 27, 2012
Louises commented on the word wolf
The wolf looking out through human eyes with blazing animal alertness. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan.
March 28, 2012