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# wolf

«wolf» in Mova's school dictionary: **a wild animal of the dog family that lives and hunts in…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a wolf, wolves); verb (wolf, wolfs, wolfed, wolfing — wolf down)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A wolf is a wild animal of the dog family that lives and hunts in groups called packs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wolf/#m1)

2) To wolf food, or wolf it down, is to eat it very quickly in big mouthfuls. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wolf/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In science, wolves are predators that hunt deer, elk and other animals; they live in packs led by a breeding pair, howl to communicate, and are ancestors of pet dogs. They live in North America, Europe and Asia; they once lived in Britain and Ireland but were hunted out. Wolves are rarely dangerous to people. In stories and fairy tales (Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, The Boy Who Cried Wolf), the wolf is often the clever, scary villain. Phrases: «a pack of wolves», «cry wolf» (raise false alarms), «a wolf in sheep's clothing» (someone who hides a bad nature behind a kind face), «wolf down», «lone wolf».

### examples

- A pack of wolves howled in the forest. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wolf/#x1)
- Wolves hunt together in packs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wolf/#x2)
- The big bad wolf blew the house down. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wolf/#x3)
- Don't cry wolf, or no one will believe you. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wolf/#x4)
- He wolfed down his sandwich. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wolf/#x5)
- Pet dogs come from wolves. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wolf/#x6)
- Wolves were brought back to Yellowstone National Park. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wolf/#x7)
- A wolf in sheep's clothing pretends to be kind. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wolf/#x8)
- "Thank you, Mr. Wolf," said she. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wolf/#x9)

### note

Irregular plural: wolf → wolves (f → ves), like leaf → leaves. Verb: «wolfs, wolfed». A baby wolf is a cub or pup; a female is a she-wolf. In real life, wolves usually avoid people.

### In the corpora

- [Wolves live in packs that are usually a family: a mother, a father and their young of different ages.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/24-wolves-and-dogs/4/)
- [Musk oxen form a ring facing outwards, with calves in the middle, so wolves meet only a wall of horns.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/53-how-animals-defend-themselves/17/)
- [When wolves come, musk oxen stand in a ring with the calves in the middle and their horns pointing out.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/168-the-arctic-tundra-musk-oxen-arctic-foxes-and-the-truth-about-lemmings/4/)
- [Many dogs nibble grass and it is usually normal; scientists are not fully sure why, and wolves eat some plants too.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/193-how-a-dog-thinks-smells-sounds-and-faces/19/)
- [Dogs follow human pointing very well, even as puppies, while wolves and chimpanzees find it hard.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/237-animal-minds-what-dogs-and-cats-feel-and-understand-and-do-cats-really-chase-mice/6/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «wolf» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wolf/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.