wolf

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Contents

English [edit]

Gray wolf.

Etymology [edit]

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 (vṛ́ka), Persian گرگ (gorg), Lithuanian vilkas, Russian волк (volk), Albanian ujk, Latin lupus, Greek λύκος, Tocharian B walkwe.

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

wolf (plural wolves)

  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. (figuratively) Any very ravenous, rapacious, or destructive person or thing; especially, want; starvation.
    They toiled hard to keep the wolf from the door.
  6. A white worm, or maggot, which infests granaries.
  7. (obsolete) An eating ulcer or sore. See lupus.
    • Jeremy Taylor
      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?)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Hypernyms [edit]

Hyponyms [edit]

Coordinate terms [edit]

Derived terms [edit]

terms derived from "wolf"

Translations [edit]

animal
constellation — see Lupus
man who makes amorous advances on many women
unpleasant musical tone

Verb [edit]

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.

Synonyms [edit]

Translations [edit]

to devour

External links [edit]

Anagrams [edit]

Afrikaans [edit]

Noun [edit]

wolf (plural wolwe, diminutive wolfie, plural dimunutive wolfies)

  1. wolf

Dutch [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Old Dutch *wulf, *wolf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos. Compare West Frisian and English wolf, German Wolf, Danish ulv.

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

wolf m (plural wolven, diminutive wolfje, feminine wolvin)

  1. wolf

Related terms [edit]

Middle English [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Old English wulf.

Noun [edit]

wolf (plural wolves)

  1. wolf

Descendants [edit]

Middle High German [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Old High German wolf.

Noun [edit]

wolf m

  1. wolf

Descendants [edit]

West Frisian [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Old Frisian wolf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos. Compare Dutch and English wolf, German Wolf, Danish ulv.

Noun [edit]

wolf c (plural wolven)

  1. wolf
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