wolf

en-verb

wolf (third-person singular simple present wolfs, present participle wolfing, simple past and past participle wolfed)

wolfs (present singular third-person)
wolfing (participle present)
wolfed (participle past)
wolfed (past)
wolve (alternative rare)

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


grey wolf

grey wolves (plural)
gray wolf (alternative US)

A large canid, Canis lupus, once found throughout forested areas of northern Europe, Asia and America; it shares a common ancestry with the domestic dog.


she-wolf

From Middle English she wolf. By surface analysis, she- + wolf.

In some trepidation the priest and his friend accompanied the wolf to his den, where lay a she-wolf on the point of death.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 212:


wolf cub

wolf cubs (plural)
wolfcub (alternative)


wolfling

From wolf + -ling. Compare Middle English wolfling (“a creature which is part human and part wolf”).


wolf dog

wolf dogs (plural)
wolfdog (alternative)
wolf-dog (alternative)

One grisly old wolf-dog alone, with the liberty of an indulged favourite, had planted himself close by the chair of state, and occasionally ventured to solicit notice by putting his large hairy head upon his master’s knee, or pushing his nose into his hand.

1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter III, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

Bayan was a dog, a tall gray wolf-dog. He could jump over the table with a single bound.

1916, Arthur Ransome, “The Hut in the Forest”, in Old Peter's Russian Tales:

The wolfdog sprawls on his back, wriggling obscenely with begging paws, his long black tongue lolling out.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 2]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:


keep the wolf from the door

en-verb

keep the wolf from the door (third-person singular simple present keeps the wolf from the door, present participle keeping the wolf from the door, simple past and past participle kept the wolf from the door)

keeps the wolf from the door (present singular third-person)
keeping the wolf from the door (participle present)
kept the wolf from the door (participle past)
kept the wolf from the door (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-keep the wolf from the door.wav

The original saying may have been keep the wolf from the gate, which dates from at least 1470. By the 1500s the saying had become keep the wolf from the door, with the current meaning that it bears: see, for example, the 1645 quotation.
There is a suggestion that the phrase may have originated from French or German phrases. Compare the French manger comme un loup (“eat like a wolf”), and the German Wolfsmagen (literally “wolf’s stomach”) means “a keen appetite”.

nb...

in Metre, from the First Begynnyng of Englande, vnto the Reigne of Edwarde the Fourth, where He Made an End of His Chronicle. And from that Tyme is Added with a Continuacion of the Storie in Prose to this Our Tyme. Now First Emprinted, Gathered out of Diuerse and Soundrie Autours, of Most Certain Knowelage and Substanciall Credit, that either in Latin, or els in Our Mother Toungue, haue Writen of the Affaires of Englande.

Containing an Account of Public Transactions from the Earliest Period of English History to the Beginning of the Reign of King Edward the Fourth. Together with the Continuation by Richard Grafton, to the Thirty Fourth Year of King Henry the Eighth. The Former Part Collated with Two Manuscripts of the Author’s Own Time; the Last, with Grafton’s Duplicate Edition. To which are Added a Biographical and Literary Preface, and an Index, by Henry Ellis.

cog

They didn't earn much, but it was enough to keep the wolf from the door.

I'll grab a sandwich to keep the wolf from the door until dinner time.

And my calling be simple and poor, / Yet will I endeavour myself / To keep off the wolf from the door.

a. 1609, “Plain Dealing Man”, in Robert Bell, editor, Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England, published 1857:

Indeed 'tis very fitting that He or She ſhould have wherewith to ſupport both, according to their quality, at leaſt to keep the Wolf from the Door, otherwiſe 'twere a meer madneſs to Marry; […]

1645 May 8 (Gregorian calendar), James Howell, “LX. To Tho. Young, Esq”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume I, London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], published 1655, →OCLC, section VI, page 284:

This pittance, with a rake-off on photographs and autographs, ought to enable the heroic Viking [Fridtjof Nansen] to meet his coal-bin unflinchingly and keep the wolf from his door next summer.

1897 December 2, Joseph Smith, “The Fakir and the Milch Cow”, in Life, volume XXX, number 780, New York, N.Y.: Life Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 465, column 3:

No first night or ball was complete without him, Sagan. The very mention of his name in their articles must have kept the wolf from the door of needy reporters.

1898, Eliot Gregory, Worldly Ways & Byways, Charles Scribner's Sons:

I keep the wolf from the door but he calls me up / Calls me on the phone, tells me all the ways that he's gonna mess me up

2003, “A Wolf at the Door”, in Hail to the Thief, performed by Radiohead:

(idiomatic) To ward off poverty or hunger.


red wolf

From red + wolf from being a grey wolf relative with a reddish coat.

Canis rufus, a medium-sized canine native to the southeastern United States.


dire wolf

dire wolves (plural)
direwolf (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-dire wolf.wav

Colossal scientists have created three dire wolf pups by using ancient DNA, cloning and gene-editing technology to alter the genes of a gray wolf, the prehistoric dire wolf’s closest living relative, the company announced Monday. […] The three dire wolves are living on a 2,000-acre site at an undisclosed location enclosed by 10-foot-tall (3-meter-tall) “zoo-grade” fencing, where they are monitored by security personnel, drones and live camera feeds.

2025 April 7, Katie Hunt, “Scientists say they have resurrected the dire wolf”, in CNN:

Aenocyon dirus
Aenocyon dirus#Translingual

An extinct canine (†Aenocyon dirus) from the Pleistocene epoch, heavier and slightly larger than the modern grey wolf.


timber wolf

en-noun

timber wolf (countable and uncountable, plural timber wolves)


wolf in sheep's clothing

wolf in sheep's clothing (plural wolves in sheep's clothing)

/ˈwʊlf ɪn ˈʃiːps ˈkləʊðɪŋ/

From Matthew 7:15 in the Bible (King James Version; spelling modernized): “Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”

He ſaith, He doth not plead for all who go under the name of Miniſters in England; he fears there is many of them no better than Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, &c. Then why doth he not come out, and cry againſt them, but remain amongſt them in their Practice? For wherein can he clear himſelf of any one thing, which they are guilty of, which he confeſſes are Wolves in Sheep's Clothing? [...] I have as much ground to ſuſpect him to be one of the Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, as he has ground to ſuſpect his own Companions and Generation to be ſuch.

1659, Edward Burroughs [i.e., Edward Burrough], “Some of the Principles of the Quakers (Scornfully so Called by Men) Vindicated, and Proved Sound, and True, According to the Scriptures: …”, in The Memorable Works of a Son of Thunder and Consolation: […], [London]: [Ellis Hookes], published 1672, →OCLC, page 452:

If the wolf was to be feared, the learned gentleman might rest assured it would be the wolf in sheep's clothing, the masked pretender to patriotism. It was not from the fang of the lion, but from the tooth of the serpent, that reptile that insidiously steals upon the vitals of the constitution and gnaws it to the heart ere the mischief is suspected, that destruction was to be feared.

1785 February 9, Richard Brinsley Sheridan (Member of Parliament for Stafford), “[Proceedings relating to the Westminster Scrutiny]”, in [William Cobbett], editor, The Parliamentary History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803. […] (House of Commons of the United Kingdom), volume XXV, London: Printed by T[homas] C[urson] Hansard, […] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown; [et al.], published 1815, →OCLC, column 47:

The military power ſhould ever be kept diſtinct. We then ſee it, we know it by its proper name, we are on our guard, but when a power of a ſimilar kind intrudes itſelf upon us, under the name of a civil power, the wolf in ſheep's clothing deceives and endangers us.

1790 February 24, Arthur Browne, “[Committee on the bill to continue an act passed in the 27th year of his present majesty, entitled an act for the better execution of the law and preservation of the peace within counties at large]”, in The Parliamentary Register: Or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons of Ireland, […] (Irish House of Commons), volume X, Dublin: Printed by P. Byrne, […]; and J. Moore, […], →OCLC, page 310:

A deceitful man is a wolf in sheep's clothing. He will appear innocent, cheerful, polite, attentive, kind, obliging, and abjectly condescending; but let him once get you into his power and he becomes more ferocious, more cruel, and more destructive than the most savage animals that ever trod in deserts uninhabited by rational beings.

1806, Thoughts on Deceit, Margate, Kent: Printed by J. Warren, […], →OCLC, pages 15–16:

And if he preached other than the right doctrine, wherefore did his superiors in the Carthusian convent permit it? If the shepherds turn a wolf in sheep's clothing into the flock, they should not blame the sheep for being worried.

[1828 May 15, [Walter Scott], chapter II, in Chronicles of the Canongate. Second Series. […] (The Fair Maid of Perth), volume III, Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, page 27:

[H]ere, then, was a community of good taste and kind feeling, no sharpers, no black-legs, no wolves in sheep's clothing.

1836 December 31, Laurie Todd, “Letter from Laurie Todd: Christmas and New-Year’s-Day”, in New-York Mirror, a Weekly Journal, Devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts, volume XIV, number 27, New York, N.Y.: Scott & Co., printers, →OCLC, page 211, column 1:

So the tales were told ages before Æsop: and asses under lion's manes roared in Hebrew; and sly foxes flattered in Etruscan; and wolves in sheep's clothing gnashed their teeth in Sanscrit, no doubt.

[1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], “The Overture—after which the Curtain Rises upon a Drinking Chorus”, in The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC, page 4:

The larvae, it seemed, had "passed" as aphids. Like "wolves in sheep's clothing" they appeared to have fooled the guardians of their prey.

1978 February 17, Thomas Eisner, Karen Hicks, Maria Eisner, Douglas S. Robson, “‘Wolf-in-Sheep’s-Clothing’ Strategy of a Predaceous Insect Larva”, in Science, volume 199, number 4330, Washington, D.C.: American Association for the Advancement of Science, →DOI, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, →PMID, page 793, columns 1–2:

(idiomatic) Someone who or something which is harmful or threatening but disguised as something peaceful or pleasant.

King James Version
wolf in sheep's clothing

ujk me lëkurë qengji

someone or something harmful or threatening but disguised as something peaceful or pleasant

黃鼠狼給雞拜年——沒安好心 /黄鼠狼给鸡拜年——没安好心

huángshǔláng gěi jī bàinián, méi ān hǎoxīn

猫被り (ねこかぶり, nekokaburi, literally “pretending to be a cat”)


lone wolf

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-lone wolf.wav

They knew what it meant; even Joan had heard the cry of the lone wolf hunting in the lean time of winter, and of all things sad, all things lonely, all things demoniacal, the howl of a wolf stands alone.

1921, Max Brand, chapter XIII, in The Seventh Man:


Mexican wolf

A rare subspecies of grey wolf, Canis lupus baileyi


brush wolf

a small wolf found in western North America


coywolf

Canis latrans
Canis latrans#Translingual

A hybrid of a coyote (Canis latrans) and a wolf.


Big Bad Wolf

(usually with the) An evil fictional wolf that appears in fairy tales or fables.


wolfpack

wolfpacks (plural)
wolf pack (alternative)
wolf-pack (alternative)

(historical, nautical, military) During World War II, any of various marauding groups of submarines, especially German submarines that patrolled the North Atlantic and preyed upon merchant ships.


wolfpack

en-verb

wolfpack (third-person singular simple present wolfpacks, present participle wolfpacking, simple past and past participle wolfpacked)

wolfpacks (present singular third-person)
wolfpacking (participle present)
wolfpacked (participle past)
wolfpacked (past)
wolf pack (alternative)
wolf-pack (alternative)

2017, September 6, Michael Gordon, "Online they were Heather, Megan and Kylie – adult men luring boys into making porn Sacramento Bee
If a boy refused to take part, the predators would team up – Anderson called it "wolfpacking" – until the target complied

To gang up on a solitary target, in the manner of a pack of wolves.


tundra wolf

Canis lupus albus
Canis lupus albus#Translingual

A subspecies of grey wolf, Canis lupus albus.


wolfkin

Kite and kestrel, wolf and wolfkin, from the wilderness, wallow in it.


wolf whelp

wolf whelps (plural)
wolf-whelp (alternative)
wolfwhelp (alternative)

A young, especially an infant, wolf; a wolf cub.


eastern wolf

The wolf is found in the eastern United States.

Canis lycaon, a fertile hybrid pseudo-species of wolf resulting from the crossbreeding of gray wolves with coyotes, whose contributions to the eastern wolf genome is roughly 75% to 25%, respectively; which is found on the East Coast and Great Lakes regions of the United States.


wolfaboo

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-wolfaboo.wav

Undaunted, Bridges has continued telling his story, thanking “all of you wolf loving fools” for gaining him new followers on his Wolf Control website. “I only had to ban 150 or so wolfaboos,” he crowed. “You people are your own worst enemies ... please, please, keep it up.”

2014 November 8, Betsy Marston, “Heard around the west”, in Lewiston News-Argus, volume 132, number 127, page 4:

Last year I came across a forum where wolfaboos believed that they were "special snowflakes" who where blessed with the ability to physically shape shift into wolves.

2018, Scary Garry SG1, 99, unnumbered page

Frustration with fluff and wolfaboos is understandable: at stake in Otherkin representation is not merely an opinion about how the community should be characterized, but the very idea that Otherkin identification is a viable way to exist in the world.

2019, Devin Proctor, "On Being Non-Human: Otherkin Identification and Virtual Space", dissertation submitted to George Washington University, page 243

(Internet slang, derogatory) Someone who is obsessed with wolves and identifies with them, especially a furry or otherkin.


Arctic wolf

en-noun

Arctic wolf (countable and uncountable, plural Arctic wolves)

Arctic wolves (plural)
arctic wolf (alternative)

From Arctic + wolf.
From being a wolf found in the Canadian Arctic.

Canis lupus arctos
Canis lupus arctos#Translingual

Canadian Arctic Archipelago
Canadian Arctic Archipelago

(uncountable) Canis lupus arctos; A subspecies of the grey wolf, living in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, including once Greenland, that is all-white.


polar wolf

polar wolf (countable and uncountable, plural polar wolves)

From polar + wolf.
From being a wolf found in the northern polar region, specifically, that of Canada.

Synonym of Arctic wolf (“Canis lupus arctos”).


white wolf

white wolf (countable and uncountable, plural white wolves)

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see white, wolf.

Synonym of Arctic wolf (“Canis lupus arctos”) (an all-white wolf subspecies found in the Canadian Arctic)

Arctic wolf

Synonym of spirit wolf (a mystical creature found in Native American traditions)


sheep in wolf's clothing

sheep in wolf's clothing (plural sheep in wolves' clothing)

Humorous alteration of wolf in sheep's clothing.

The hunter-insects, as we have seen, disguise themselves so as to get near their victims unawares, and the hunted disguise themselves very often in the same way so as to avoid being seen, but sometimes in such a way that if they are seen they may appear to be much more terrible creatures than they really are. And so we have the sheep in wolves’ clothing.

1910, Douglas English, A Book of Nimble Beasts: Bunny Rabbit, Squirrel, Toad, and “Those Sort of People”, London: Eveleigh Nash, page 221:

Someone or something that appears fierce or threatening but is actually harmless or means no harm.


wolfess

wolfesses (plural)
wolvess (alternative rare)

From Middle English wolfesse, wolvas, wolvesse. By surface analysis, wolf + -ess.

Whan the chyldren were now set at the brinke of yᵉ water, by chaunce came a wolfesse out of the nexte mountaynes, which gaue thē soucke, vntil they we∣re founde of the Kynges shepherde, who bringin∣ge them home, toke them hys wyfe to nouryshe.

1550, Iohn Carion, translated by Gwalter Lynne, compiled by Iohn Funcke, The Thre Bokes of Cronicles, Whyche Iohn Carion (a Man Syngularly Well Sene in the Mathematycall Sciences) Gathered wyth Great Diligence of the Beste Authours That Haue Written in Hebrue, Greke or Latine. […], London: […] [S. Mierdman] for Gwalter Lynne, […], folio xxv, verso; republished in Early English Books Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: Text Creation Partnership, p. 2011:

The dog eloped with a white wolfess, and proved a good husband and father until his household was destroyed by relentless man.

“Yes, they got here hours ago, just about the time you went prowling around like a wolf, they were supposed to come tomorrow, but I guess they changed their minds on the date.” / “Wolf, am I?” Jack laughed, taking the hint belatedly. “Well, maybe I am, and you are the wolfess I’m after. Woof, woof, I am coming after you.” / Anna backed away feigning fear, then laughed.

1947, It Started in Ravenswood, page 225:

“Another day in the George Lawrence Empire. Scene, the fox-trot ballroom. Characters, a wolfess aged forty-two and yours truly.” He rolled his eyes like a woman’s. “Tommy, hold me tight, will you honey?” he whispered in the role of the wolfess. Then the woman’s eyes changed into the sly and sad and abandoned eyes of a homo.

1954, Benjamin Appel, Sweet Money Girl: A Gold Medal Original, page 64:

In the crowd that welcomed him home, consisting of about eleven creatures, for all the others were hiding under beds, there was a speed-crazy young wolfess, with built-in instantaneous pickup ability, and in no time at all the wolf and his new-found mate were setting new records for driving upside down, backward, blindfolded, handcuffed, and cockeyed, doubled and redoubled.

1956, The New Yorker, page 28, column 3:

Allyn Ann McLerie slinks skillfully as cat and wolfess; Richard Hayes struts smoothly as “The Stork Who Married a Dumb Wife;” Kaye Ballard unleashes her lush voice, and Bert Convy and Nancy Haywood exploit their youthful vitality in numerous guises.

1963, New York Theatre Critics’ Reviews, page 327, column 3:

To prove the truth of his story, the werewolf, “using his claw as a hand, drew off the pelt from the head of the wolfess and folded it back even as far down as the navel, whereupon there was plainly to be seen the body of an old woman.”

1971, Daniel Cohen, A Natural History of Unnatural Things, page 46:

The dispute between Romulus and Remus, resulting in the death of Remus at the hands of Romulus, purportedly took place during their search for a new city-site to be situated near the place where they were suckled and saved by a wolfess when abandoned as infants.

1973, Roman Art in West Coast Collections, page 49:

Once upon a time there was a pretty young wolfess who was happy and carefree. She liked to flirt with all the young wolves, go to rabbit runs, and sleep till noon. She enjoyed all the nice things that young, carefree wolfesses do.

1979, David Knox, Exploring Marriage and the Family, page 45:

Ahead was a huge door to a walk-in safe, tucked behind in a long, partitioned desk and guarded by a pretty, prim-looking white wolfess in a Politzi-like ALPHA uniform. / Janoah walked over and exchanged salutes. The safe door was ajar, to her surprise. / “Who’s in there?” she demanded of the white wolfess.

2017, Adam Browne, Imperium Lupi, Dayfly Publications:


Interior Alaskan wolf

Interior Alaskan wolf (plural Interior Alaskan wolves)

Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories

(zoology) A subspecies of gray wolf native to parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, interior Alaska and Yukon.


Florida black wolf

Florida black wolf (plural Florida black wolves)

(zoology) An extinct subspecies of Canis lupus that was endemic to Florida.


Taimyr wolf

(zoology) An ancient wolf that inhabited the Taimyr Peninsula of northern Siberia.


Italian wolf

(zoology) A subspecies of gray wolf native to the Italian Peninsula.


Alaskan tundra wolf

Alaskan tundra wolf (plural Alaskan tundra wolves)

(zoology) A North American subspecies of gray wolf native to the barren grounds of the Arctic coastal tundra region.


Great Plains wolf

Great Plains wolf (plural Great Plains wolves)

(zoology) An extinct subspecies of gray wolf that once extended throughout the Great Plains.


Greenland wolf

Greenland wolf (plural Greenland wolves)

Canis lupus orion, a subspecies of gray wolf native to Greenland.


Gregory's wolf

A subspecies of the red wolf (Canis lupus gregoryi). It was declared extinct in 1980.


Bernard's wolf

Bernard's wolf (plural Bernard's wolves)

Formally discovered, classified, and named after Peter Bernard and Joseph F. Bernard, his nephew, after an adult male skin and skull was collected by them and brought to the National Museum of Canada.

Until very recently, humans never really cared much about whether species disappeared. History is littered with our indifference—dodo birds, great auks, 24-rayed sunstars, dusky seaside sparrows, Bernard’s wolves.

2015, M. R. O’Connor, “Introduction”, in Resurrection Science: Conservation, De-Extinction and the Precarious Future of Wild Things, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 3:

An extinct subspecies of the gray wolf (Canis lupus bernardi) that was limited to Banks and Victoria Island of the Arctic Archipelago.


Alexander Archipelago wolf

A subspecies of the gray wolf (Canis lupus ligoni).


Manitoba wolf

An extinct subspecies of gray wolf, Canis lupus griseoalbus, that roamed in the southern Northwest Territories, northern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and south-central Manitoba.


Indian wolf

Canis lupus pallipes, a subspecies of grey wolf that ranges from Southwest Asia to the Indian subcontinent, intermediate in size between the Himalayan wolf and the Arabian wolf, and lacking the luxuriant winter coat of the former.


wolf-child

Mr. Neilson also adds that a jemidar told him that when he was a lad he remembered going with others to see a wolf-child which had been netted.

1898 January 10, Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, Philadelphia, page 121:

A human child that has been raised by wolves from infancy.


Japanese wolf

Canis lupus hodophilax, an extinct subspecies of the grey wolf that was once endemic to the islands of Honshū, Shikoku and Kyūshū in the Japanese archipelago.


Sakhalin wolf

Synonym of Hokkaido wolf (†Canis lupus hattai)


Hokkaido wolf

Any of extinct subspecies †Canis lupus hattai, of grey wolves that once inhabited coastal northeast Asia.


Himalayan wolf

Himalayan wolf (plural Himalayan wolves)

A canine of subspecies Canis lupus chanco, of Asian highlands.