lone wolf
Appearance
See also: Lone Wolf
English
[edit]Noun
[edit]lone wolf (plural lone wolves)
- A wolf that is not part of a pack.
- (figuratively) A person who avoids the company of others; a loner; an independent or solitary person.
- 1899, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter I, in The Sleeper Awakes[2]:
- I am a lone wolf, a solitary man, wandering through a world in which I have no part. I am wifeless—childless—who is it speaks of the childless as the dead twigs on the tree of life?
- 1915, Zane Grey, The Lone Star Ranger[3]:
- You'll never mix in. You'll be a lone wolf. I seen that right off. Wal, if a man can stand the loneliness, an' if he's quick on the draw, mebbe lone-wolfin' it is the best.
- (by extension) A criminal who acts alone, not as part of a group.
- 2017 October 2, "Las Vegas shooting: At least 58 dead at Mandalay Bay Hotel", in bbc.com, BBC:
- Paddock's motives remain unclear. Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo described the shooting as a "lone wolf" attack. "We have no idea what his belief system was," he said.
- 2023 October 17, Lisa O'Carroll, Miranda Bryant, Lorenzo Tondo, “Killing of two Swedish football fans in Brussels ‘probably lone wolf’ attack”, in The Guardian[4], →ISSN:
- A Tunisian man who killed two Swedish citizens in a terrorist attack in Brussels was “probably a lone wolf”, the Belgian prime minister has said, as Sweden and Italy called for security at Europe’s borders to be tightened.
- 2017 October 2, "Las Vegas shooting: At least 58 dead at Mandalay Bay Hotel", in bbc.com, BBC:
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]wolf that is not part of a pack
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person who avoids the company of others
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criminal who acts alone
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