ETYM Old Eng. wolf, wulf, AS. wulf; akin to OS. wulf, Dutch and German wolf, Icel. űlfr, Swed. ulf, Dan. ulv, Goth. wulfs, Lith. vilkas, Russ. volk, Latin lupus, Greek lykos. Related to Lupine, Lyceum.
(Irregular plural: wolves).
1. A man who is aggressive in making amorous advances to women; SYN. woman chaser, skirt chaser, masher.
2. Any of various predatory carnivorous canine mammals of North America and Eurasia that usually hunt in packs.
Any of two species of large wild dogs of the genus Canis. The gray or timber wolf C. lupus, of North America and Eurasia, is highly social, measures up to 90 cm/3 ft at the shoulder, and weighs up to 45 kg/100 lb. It has been greatly reduced in numbers except for isolated wilderness regions. The red wolf C. rufus, generally more slender and smaller (average weight about 15 kg/35 lb) and tawnier in color, may not be a separate species, but a gray wolf–coyote hybrid. It used to be restricted to S central US, but is now thought to be extinct in the wild.
A US federal program to reintroduce the North American gray wolf to Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, and Idaho state was launched 1995. The gray wolf had been largely exterminated from the SW US in the 1930s, and is listed as endangered in every state except Alaska and Minnesota.
Wolves are increasing in parts of Europe, including a thriving population of 3,000 in the Carpathian Mountains, mostly in Romania, and 2,000 in northern Spain. + prikaži više