wolf

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

• enPR: wo͝olf
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /wʊlf/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /wʊlf/, [wʊ̠ɫf], [wɫ̩f]
  • (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /wʊlf/, [wʊwf]

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /wʌlf/
• Rhymes: -ʊlf

wolf (plural wolves)

1. The gray wolf, specifically all subspecies of the gray wolf (Canis lupus) that are not dingoes or dogs.
2. A man who makes amorous advances to many women.
3. (music) A wolf tone or wolf note.
4. (figuratively) Any very ravenous, rapacious, or destructive person or thing; especially, want; starvation.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 7, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     “ […] 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.”

   They toiled hard to keep the wolf from the door.

   the bee wolf

5. One of the destructive, and usually hairy, larvae of several species of beetles and grain moths.
6. A white worm, or maggot, which infests granaries.
7. (obsolete) An eating ulcer or sore. See lupus.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Jeremy Taylor, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

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

8. A willying machine.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

• (large wild canid): Canis lupus, canid

• (large wild canid): she-wolf

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

• → Ido: volfo (also from German)

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.
   • 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.

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

• wolf on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• flow, fowl

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

wolf (plural wolwe)

1. wolf

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

wolf m

1. (Italian Walser) wolf

• “wolf” in Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

From Middle Dutch wolf, from Old Dutch *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. wolf, undomesticated Canis lupus
2. one of many other canids of the family Canidae, especially of the genus Canis

• welp

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

wolf m

1. wolf, grey wolf

• wēerwolf

• Dutch: wolf
• Limburgish: wólf

• “wolf (I)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• “wolf (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929

• wulf, woulf, wolfe

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

• IPA^(key): /wulf/

wolf (plural wolves, diminutive wolfy, wolfie)

1. wolf, lupine
2. terrifying person

• English: wolf
• Scots: wolf

From Old High German wolf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos.

wolf m

1. wolf

• Alemannic German:

  Italian Walser: wolf

• Bavarian:

  Cimbrian: bolf

  Mòcheno: bolf

  Udinese: bolf, bölf

• German: Wolf
  • → Ido: volfo (also from English)
• Luxembourgish: Wollef
• Vilamovian: wūf
• Rhine Franconian:

  Pennsylvania German: Wolf

• Yiddish: וואָלף‎ (volf)

From Proto-Germanic *wulfaz.

• IPA^(key): /wolf/

wolf m (plural wolfa)

1. wolf

• Wolfgang

• Middle High German: wolf
  • Alemannic German:

    Italian Walser: wolf

  • Bavarian:

    Cimbrian: bolf

    Mòcheno: bolf

    Udinese: bolf, bölf

  • German: Wolf
    • → Ido: volfo (also from English)
  • Luxembourgish: Wollef
  • Vilamovian: wūf
  • Rhine Franconian:

    Pennsylvania German: Wolf

  • Yiddish: וואָלף‎ (volf)

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

wolf c (plural wolven, diminutive wolfke)

1. wolf

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