# wolf
## English
### Etymology

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.

### Pronunciation

* enPR: wo͝olf
** (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /wʊlf/
*** Audio (Received Pronunciation); “a wolf”:(file)
** (General American) IPA: /wʊlf/, [wʊɫf], [wɵɫf]
*** Audio (General American):(file)
*** (Southern US) IPA: [wʟ̩ːf]
** (New Zealand) IPA: /wʊlf/, [wʊwf]
** (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA: /wʉlf/
* enPR: wo͝of, IPA: /wʊf/ (now nonstandard)
* enPR: wŭlf, IPA: /wʌlf/ (obsolete)
* Rhymes: -ʊlf

### Noun

wolf (plural wolves)
* (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, 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.
** Any of several related canines that resemble Canis lupus in appearance, especially those of the genus Canis.
* A man who makes amorous advances to many women.
* (music) A wolf tone or wolf note.
    The soft violin solo was marred by persistent wolves.
* (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.”
* One of the destructive, and usually hairy, larvae of several species of beetles and grain moths.
* A white worm which infests granaries, the larva of Nemapogon granella, a tineid moth.
* A wolf spider.
* (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
* 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

#### Synonyms

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

#### Hypernyms

* (large wild canid): Canis lupus, canid

#### Hyponyms

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

#### Coordinate terms

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

#### Derived terms

* aard-wolf
* Abyssinian wolf
* Alaskan tundra wolf
* Alexander Archipelago wolf
* Alsatian wolf dog
* Antarctic wolf
* Apennine wolf
* aphid wolf
* Arctic wolf
* arctic wolf
* Arctic wolf spider
* Bernard's wolf
* Big Bad Wolf
* brush wolf
* buy wolf tickets
* Chinese wolf
* cry wolf
* Desertas wolf spider
* dire wolf
* eastern wolf
* Ethiopian wolf
* Eurasian wolf
* European wolf
* Ezo wolf
* Falkland Islands wolf
* Falkland Island wolf
* Florida black wolf
* Futsing wolf snake
* Great Plains wolf
* Greenland wolf
* Gregory's wolf
* grey wolf, gray wolf
* have the wolf by the ear
* he-wolf
* Himalayan wolf
* Hokkaido wolf
* Honshu wolf
* hungry like the wolf
* Indian wolf
* Interior Alaskan wolf
* Iranian wolf
* Italian wolf
* Japanese wolf
* keep the wolf from the door
* like a wolf on the fold
* lone wolf
* Lone Wolf (town)
* maned wolf
* man is a wolf to man
* Manitoba wolf
* man-wolf
* mer-wolf
* Mexican wolf
* mountain wolf
* painted wolf
* polar wolf
* prairie wolf
* rabid wolf spider
* raised by wolves
* red wolf
* rye wolf
* Sakhalin wolf
* sea wolf
* seawolf (Anarhichas lupus)
* see a wolf
* sell wolf tickets
* she-wolf
* Taimyr wolf
* Tasmanian wolf
* the wolf is at the door
* the wolf may lose his teeth but never his nature
* Tibetan wolf
* tiger wolf
* timber wolf
* tundra wolf
* were-wolf
* were wolf
* werewolf
* wher-wolf
* white wolf
* who keeps company with the wolf will learn to howl
* wolf at the door
* wolf back
* wolf call
* wolf-cat
* wolf-child
* wolf cub
* wolf cut
* wolf dog
* wolf down
* wolf eel
* wolf eliminator
* wolfess
* wolf father
* wolffish
* wolf-fish
* wolf-grey
* wolf guarding the sheep
* wolf herring
* wolf hook
* wolf-hunter
* wolfie
* wolf in a lamb's skin
* wolf in one's belly
* wolf in one's stomach
* wolf in sheep's clothing
* wolf interval
* wolf in wool
* wolfish
* wolf jump
* wolf lichen
* wolflike
* wolf moon
* wolf-mother
* wolf net
* wolf of Wall Street
* wolf-pack
* wolf pack
* wolf packing
* Wolf Point
* wolf snake
* wolf ticket
* wolf tone
* wolf tooth
* wolf tree
* wolf up
* wolf warrior
* wolf whelp
* wolf-whelp
* wolf-whistle
* wolf whistle
* wolf willow
* wolf worm
* wolfy
* wolven
* zebra wolf

#### Descendants

* → Ido: volfo (also from German)

#### References

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

### Verb

wolf (third-person singular simple present wolfs, present participle wolfing, simple past and past participle wolfed)
* (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.
* (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.’
* (intransitive) To hunt for wolves.

#### Alternative forms

* wolve (rare)

#### Synonyms

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

#### Translations
### References

* “wolf”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
* ↑ Wells, J. C. (1982) Accents of English. Vol. 3: Beyond the British Isles, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 551
* ↑ Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck, in Linguistics for Everyone: An Introduction (2009), page 136

### Further reading

* wolf on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Anagrams

* flow, fowl

## Afrikaans
### Etymology

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.

### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Noun

wolf (plural wolwe)
* (countable) wolf (Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily)

## Alemannic German
### Etymology

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.

### Noun

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

### References

* 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

## Dutch
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ʋɔlf/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: wolf
* Rhymes: -ɔlf

### Noun

wolf m (plural wolven, diminutive wolfje n, feminine wolvin)
* (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.
* one of many other canids of the family Canidae, especially of the genus Canis
    Er bestaan verschillende soorten wolven.Various species of wolves exist.

#### Hypernyms

* hondachtige

#### Hyponyms

* hond

#### Holonyms

* roedel

#### Derived terms

* aardwolf
* aarswolf
* geldwolf
* goudwolf
* korenwolf
* poolwolf
* prairiewolf
* rietwolf
* strandwolf
* waterwolf
* weerwolf
* woestijnwolf
* wolfijzer
* wolfsgod
* wolfshond
* wolfskers
* wolfskind
* wolfsklauw
* wolfsklem
* wolfsmelk
* wolfspoot
* wolfsspin
* wolvenroedel
* wolvin
* zeewolf

#### Related terms

* welp

#### Descendants

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

## Hawaiian Creole
### Etymology

Derived from English wolf.

### Noun

wolf
* (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, 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.

## Middle Dutch
### Etymology

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

### Noun

wolf m
* wolf, grey wolf

#### Derived terms

* wēerwolf

#### Descendants

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

#### Further reading

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

## Middle English
### Alternative forms

* wulf, woulf, wolfe

### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /wulf/

### Noun

wolf (plural wolves, diminutive wolfy, wolfie)
* (countable) wolf (Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily)
* (figurative) terrifying person

#### Descendants

* English: wolf, wolve (rare)
** → Ido: volfo (also from German)
* Scots: wolf, woulf, wouff

## Middle High German
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (before 13th CE) /ˈwolf/

### Noun

wolf m
* (countable) wolf (Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily)

#### Descendants

* 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)

## Old High German
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /wolf/

### Noun

wolf m (plural wolfa)
* (countable) wolf (Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily)

#### Derived terms

* wolfbizzo
* Wolfgang

#### Descendants

* 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)

## Scots
### Noun

wolf (plural wolves)
* Alternative form of wouf
** 1904, “John X”, in William Wye Smith, transl., The New Testament in Braid Scots‎, 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.

## West Frisian
### Etymology

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

### Noun

wolf c (plural wolven, diminutive wolfke)
* (countable) wolf (Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily)

#### Further reading

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