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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



... tamed, the horse which once roved wild submits to have a saddle on his back, and a bit in his mouth. The cow gives her milk and her meat, and the sheep both wool and meat, for the nourishment and the clothing of man; the dog, which, when wild, was fierce as his brother the wolf, has become the friend and companion of man; even the gigantic elephant has become docile, and the Indian mother leaves her babe under its charge, that the monster may brush away the flies from the ...
— The Village Pulpit, Volume II. Trinity to Advent • S. Baring-Gould
... news! An outbreak, long smouldering, had just occurred at the great reservation of the Spirit Wolf; the agent and several of his men had been massacred, their women carried away into a captivity whose horrors beggar all description, and two troops—hardly sixscore men—of Colonel Stanley's regiment were already in pursuit. Leaving his daughter ...
— Starlight Ranch - and Other Stories of Army Life on the Frontier • Charles King
... swindler, that application had been made by Philip for news of his brother, and having also learned before, from the same person, that Philip had been implicated in the sale of a horse, swindled, if not stolen, he saw every additional reason to widen the stream that flowed between the wolf and the lamb. The older Sidney grew, the better he comprehended and appreciated the motives of his protector—for he was brought up in a formal school of propriety and ethics, and his mind naturally revolted from all images of violence or fraud. Mr. ...
— Night and Morning, Volume 2 • Edward Bulwer Lytton
... with us in return. We sat down in the bazaar, and were a spectacle to all. How much we longed to have the Arabic tongue, that we might preach the unsearchable riches of Christ in God's own land! Same evening we heard the cry of the wolf, and encamped two miles from Gaza. The plague was raging, so we did not enter, but spent a delightful day in comparing its condition with God's word concerning it: 'Baldness is come upon Gaza.' The old city is buried under sand-hills, without a ...
— The Biography of Robert Murray M'Cheyne • Andrew A. Bonar
... the officer turned to the sergeant-major and said with a sigh, "Damned nuisances they are! Now we've got two of these fellows, Wolf and Weise, we must see they don't get together. How is ...
— 'Jena' or 'Sedan'? • Franz Beyerlein


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