From inflected stem ofwolf.
wolve (third-person singular simple presentwolves,present participlewolving,simple past and past participlewolved)
- (intransitive) To behave like awolf.
- (intransitive) Of anorgan, to make a hollow whining sound like that of awolf.
2006, Thomas Pynchon,Against the Day, Vintage, published2007, page784:he had returned to his schoolboy's script, to distant Evensongs, to thewolving of the ancient chapel organ as the last light is extinguished and the door latched for the long night.
- (transitive)Rare form ofwolf(“todevour; togobble; toeat (something)voraciously”).
1838 November 16, “Measure for Measure”, inThe Morning Chronicle, number21,530, London,page[3], column 6:He then went to the Crown and Anchor public-house, in the same street, and had two pints of ale, and bread and cheese, the latter of which he “wolved” in a way that “out dando’d Dando.”
1924,Elliot Paul,Imperturbe: A Novel of Peace Without Victory, New York, N.Y.:Alfred A. Knopf, page39:Already, some of the labourers were unstraddling the benches to go, havingwolved a plate or two, and their piece of pie.
1941 February 25, “Cut-Throat Enemies Outwitted By ‘Desert Rat’ By Sly Tactics”, inArizona Republic, 51st year, number283, Phoenix, Ariz.,page two, column 4:I’d rather be the wolf than bewolved.
1957 July 4,Dawn Powell, edited byTim Page,The Diaries of Dawn Powell, 1931–1965, South Royalton, Vt.: Steerforth Press, published1995,→ISBN,page371:Also, when shewolves a sandwich—a peasant greed and sort of pious righteousness, as if “Food is Good For You. The Body Must Survive. I have a Right to this sandwich.”
1994,Robin Jenkins,The Thistle and the Grail, Edinburgh: Polygon, published1997,→ISBN,page78:That chip by this addition became a feast, and the Fernbank manners, as theywolved into it, were revolting.
