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Wolf   /wʊlf/   Listen
noun
Wolf  n.  (pl. wolves)  
1.
(Zool.) Any one of several species of carnivorous mammal belonging to the genus Canis (family Canidae) 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, more commonly called coyote. Wolves often hunt in packs, and may thus attack large animals and, rarely, even man.
2.
(Zool.) One of the destructive, and usually hairy, larvae of several species of beetles and grain moths; as, the bee wolf.
3.
Fig.: Any very ravenous, rapacious, or destructive person or thing; especially, want; starvation; as, they toiled hard to keep the wolf from the door.
4.
A white worm, or maggot, which infests granaries.
5.
An eating ulcer or sore. Cf. Lupus. (Obs.) "If God should send a cancer upon thy face, or a wolf into thy side."
6.
(Mus.)
(a)
The harsh, howling sound of some of the chords on an organ or piano tuned by unequal temperament.
(b)
In bowed instruments, a harshness due to defective vibration in certain notes of the scale.
7.
(Textile Manuf.) A willying machine.
Black wolf. (Zool.)
(a)
A black variety of the European wolf which is common in the Pyrenees.
(b)
A black variety of the American gray wolf.
Golden wolf (Zool.), the Thibetan wolf (Canis laniger); called also chanco.
Indian wolf (Zool.), an Asiatic wolf (Canis pallipes) which somewhat resembles a jackal. Called also landgak.
Prairie wolf (Zool.), the coyote.
Sea wolf. (Zool.) See in the Vocabulary.
Strand wolf (Zool.) the striped hyena.
Tasmanian wolf (Zool.), the zebra wolf.
Tiger wolf (Zool.), the spotted hyena.
To keep the wolf from the door, to keep away poverty; to prevent starvation. See Wolf, 3, above.
Wolf dog. (Zool.)
(a)
The mastiff, or shepherd dog, of the Pyrenees, supposed by some authors to be one of the ancestors of the St. Bernard dog.
(b)
The Irish greyhound, supposed to have been used formerly by the Danes for chasing wolves.
(c)
A dog bred between a dog and a wolf, as the Eskimo dog.
Wolf eel (Zool.), a wolf fish.
Wolf fish (Zool.), 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 also catfish, sea cat, sea wolf, stone biter, and swinefish.
Wolf net, a kind of net used in fishing, which takes great numbers of fish.
Wolf's peach (Bot.), the tomato, or love apple (Lycopersicum esculentum).
Wolf spider (Zool.), any one of numerous species of running ground spiders belonging to the genus Lycosa, or family Lycosidae. These spiders run about rapidly in search of their prey. Most of them are plain brown or blackish in color.
Zebra wolf (Zool.), a savage carnivorous marsupial (Thylacinus cynocephalus) native of Tasmania; called also Tasmanian wolf.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Wolf" Quotes from Famous Books



... retorted: "Your English generosity could wish your countrymen no better luck than that my Lugarenos, as your worship pleases to call them, should miss their way. They are hungry for loot—with much fasting. And it is hunger that makes your wolf fly straight at ...
— Romance • Joseph Conrad and F.M. Hueffer
... wild animals, and she is successful in the illustration of books. Her pictures are in private collections. At the Royal Academy in 1903 she exhibited "The Day of Reckoning," a wolf pursued by hunters through a forest in snow. A second shows a snow scene, with a wolf baying, while two others are apparently listening to him. "While the wolf, in nightly prowl, bays the moon with hideous howl," is the legend with ...
— Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D. • Clara Erskine Clement
... was clear. The engineer had put a spoke in the fellow's wheel. Then I walked to the door and saw the two get into a car and start on the trail this way. After that, I resumed my supper. You perceive, the man had taken the girl away from the wolf." ...
— In the Shadow of the Hills • George C. Shedd
... affection, she was filled with the gall of disappointment, and with spite against the man who had taught her son how worse than foolish it is to aspire to teach before one has learned; nor did she fail to cast scathing reflections on her husband, in that he had brought home a viper in his bosom, a wolf into his fold, the wretched minion of a worldly church to lead her son away captive at his will; and partly no doubt from his last uncomfortable sermons, but mainly from the play of Mrs Marshal's tongue on her husband's tympanum, the deacons in full conclave agreed that no ...
— The Marquis of Lossie • George MacDonald
... uns," I says: "and we went to where we could look, and there was a young wolf cub, getting slowly down. Let's fetch the young squire," I says; "and we come after you, for I thought you'd like to have ...
— The Black Tor - A Tale of the Reign of James the First • George Manville Fenn


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