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pl. of Wolf.

A meal after fasting, or food in general. The wolves will get a breakfast by my death. Dryden.

Of or pertaining to the family Canidæ, or dogs and wolves; having the nature or qualities of a dog; like that or those of a dog.

A genus of carnivorous mammals, of the family Canidæ, including the dogs and wolves. Canis major Etym: [L., larger dog], a constellation to the southeast of Orion, containing Sirius or the Dog Star. -- Canis minor Etym: [L., smaller dog], a constellation to the east of Orion, containing Procyon, a star of the first ma…

Containing caverns. The wolves yelled on the caverned hill. Byron.

narticulate sound produced by one of the lower animals; as, the cry of hounds; the cry of wolves. Milton.

A division of Carnivora, including the dogs, wolves, and foxes.

Wild; untamed; savage; as, lions, tigers, wolves, and bears are ferine beasts. Sir M. Hale. -- n.

To growl; to snarl. And wolves are gnarling who shall gnaw thee first. Shak.

ed on; to eat (growing herbage); to eat grass from (a pasture); to browse. The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead. Pope.

To utter a loud, protraced, mournful sound or cry, as dogs and wolves often do. And dogs in corners set them down to howl. Drayton. Methought a legion of foul fiends Environ'd me about, and howled in my ears. Shak.

; to mate. I hold it a sin to match in my kindred. Shak. Let tigers match with hinds, and wolves with sheep. Dryden.

r them quarter for their lives. Clarendon. Cocks and lambs . . . at the mercy of cats and wolves . . . must never expect better quarter. L'Estrange.

eing rapacious; rapaciousness; ravenousness; as, the rapacity of pirates; the rapacity of wolves.

Greedily devouring; rapacious; as, ravening wolves. -- Rav"en*ing*ly, adv.

The state or quality of being savage. Wolves and bears, they say, Casting their savageness aside have done Like offices of pity. Shak.

Once; for a time. Though, under color of shepherds, somewhile There crept in wolves, full of fraund and guile. Spenser.

r by supernatural influences, by witchcraft, or voluntarily; a lycanthrope. Belief in werewolves, formerly general, is not now extinct. The werwolf went about his prey. William of Palerne. The brutes that wear our form and face, The werewolves of the human race. Longfellow.

), 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.

Originally, a large hound used in hunting wolves; now, any one of certain breeds of large dogs, some of which are nearly identical with the great Danes.