Wolf

Pronunciation

• enPR: wo͝olf, IPA: /ˈwÊŠlf/
• US IPA: /ˈwlÌ©f/
• Rhymes: -ÊŠlf

Origin

From Middle English wolf, from Old English wulf, ƿulf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz (compare West Frisian and Dutch wolf, German Wolf, Danish ulv), from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos; akin to Sanskrit वृक, Persian گرگ, Lithuanian vilkas, Russian волк, Albanian ujk, Latin lupus, Greek λύκος, Tocharian B walkwe.

Full definition of wolf

Noun

1. A large wild canid of certain subspecies of Canis lupus.
2. A man who makes amorous advances on many women.
3. (music) A wolf tone or wolf note; an unpleasant tone produced when a note matches the natural resonating frequency of the body of a musical instrument, the quality of which may be likened to the howl of a wolf.
   This cello has a terrible wolf on the D string around 'F'.
4. One of the destructive, and usually hairy, larvae of several species of beetles and grain moths.
   the bee wolf
5. (figurative) Any very ravenous, rapacious, or destructive person or thing; especially, want; starvation.
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 7, “... 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. They toiled hard to keep the wolf from the door.
7. A white worm, or maggot, which infests granaries.
8. (obsolete) An eating ulcer or sore. See lupus.
• Jeremy TaylorIf God should send a cancer upon thy face, or a wolf into thy side.
9. A willying machine.

Hypernyms

• (large wild canid) Canis lupus, canid

Hyponyms

• (large wild canid) she-wolf

Coordinate terms

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

Derived terms

Verb

1. (transitive) To devour; to gobble; to eat (something) voraciously.

Synonyms

• (devour, gobble) gulp down, wolf down

Anagrams

• flow fowl