“wolves” is a form of
wolf
/wʊlf/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms wolves wolfs wolfing wolfed wolve
- noun (countable) Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily.
- noun Any of several related canines that resemble Canis lupus in appearance, especially those of the genus Canis.
- noun A man who makes amorous advances to many women.
- noun (music) A wolf tone or wolf note. “The soft violin solo was marred by persistent wolves.”
- noun (figurative) Any very ravenous, rapacious, or destructive person or thing; especially, want; starvation. “They toiled hard to keep the wolf from the door.”
- noun One of the destructive, and usually hairy, larvae of several species of beetles and grain moths.
- noun A white worm which infests granaries, the larva of Nemapogon granella, a tineid moth.
- noun A wolf spider (Lycosidae spp.).
- verb (transitive) To devour; to gobble; to eat (something) voraciously.
- verb (intransitive, slang) To make amorous advances to many women; to hit on women; to cruise for sex.
- verb (intransitive) To hunt for wolves.
- proper noun The constellation Lupus.
- proper noun A surname transferred from the given name.
- proper noun A male given name.
Synonyms
grey wolf loafer lobo lofer loper lover gulp down wolf down Hugo Wolf Friedrich August Wolf woman chaser skirt chaser masher beast savage brute wildcat
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English wolf, from Old English wulf, ƿulf, from Proto-West Germanic *wulf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos. Doublet of lobo and lupus.
Cognate with Scots wouf, North Frisian wulew, Saterland Frisian and German Low German Wulf, West Frisian, Alemannic German, and Dutch wolf, Bavarian bolf, bölf, Woif, Cimbrian and Mòcheno bolf, German Wolf, Luxembourgish Wollef, Vilamovian wuf, Yiddish וואָלף (volf), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk ulv, Faroese úlvur, Icelandic úlfur, Swedish ulf, ulv, Gothic 𐍅𐌿𐌻𐍆𐍃 (wulfs); also Irish and Scottish Gaelic olc (“bad, evil”), Lepontic 𐌖𐌋𐌊𐌏𐌔 (ulkos), Manx olk (“bad”), Sanskrit वृक (vṛ́ka), Persian گرگ (gorg), Latgalian vylks, Latvian vìlks, Lithuanian vilkas, Belarusian воўк (vowk), Bulgarian вълк (vălk), Czech and Slovak vlk, Macedonian and Russian волк (volk), Polish wilk, Serbo-Croatian вук, vuk, Slovene volk, Ukrainian вовк (vovk), Albanian ujk, ulk, Latin lupus, Greek λύκος (lýkos), Hittite 𒉿𒀠𒆪𒉿𒀸, Lydian 𐤥𐤠𐤩𐤥𐤤 (walwe, “lion”), Tocharian B walkwe.
From wolf.
From Middle English and German short forms of given names containing the Germanic element "wolf".
Webster’s 1913
- noun Any one of several species of wild and savage carnivores belonging to the genus Canis 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 (C. occidentalis), and the prairie wolf, or coyote. Wolves often hunt in packs, and may thus attack large animals and even man.
- noun One of the destructive, and usually hairy, larvæ of several species of beetles and grain moths; as, the bee wolf.
Etymology [OE. wolf, wulf, AS. wulf; akin to OS. wulf, D. & G. wolf, Icel. ulfr, Sw. ulf, Dan. ulv, Goth. wulfs, Lith. vilkas, Russ. volk', L. lupus, Gr. ly`kos, Skr. vrska; also to Gr. "e`lkein to draw, drag, tear in pieces. sq. root286. Cf. Lupine, a., Lyceum.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “wolf”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details