direwolf

plural direwolves

1. alternativeAlternative form of dire wolf.

   Don’t stray too far. There are direwolves about. I saw their tracks earlier in the day. They’d eat your like for supper and wonder where the rest of the meal was.

   1985 March, Robert E[dward] Vardeman, Geo[rge] W[yatt] Proctor, chapter 8, in To Demons Bound (Swords of Raemllyn; 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Fantasy Books, →ISBN, page 77

   3 more examples

   “Pretty dangerous, kid, I mean walking the trail alone.” The elderly driver smacked his lips as he launched into a litany of doom. “Get lost easily enough. Get eaten by direwolves. Landslides and avalanches. And . . .”

   1985 October, Harry Harrison, chapter 10, in A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born (Stainless Steel Rat; 1), New York, N.Y.: Bantam Spectra, →ISBN

   An army, deep carven: men like the tribesmen of the north, tall and high-nosed and proud; chariots drawn by strange beasts, cats and broad-horned bulls and winged direwolves; women riding upon huge birds.

   1987 April, Judith Tarr, chapter 23, in The Lady of Han-Gilen (Avaryan Rising; 2), New York, N.Y.: Tor, →ISBN, page 246

   Possibly the most unchanged and perfect fossil bones are those from Pleistocene mammals and birds entombed in the tar pits of Rancho La Brea in Los Angeles. […] Before they disappeared forever, their carcasses attracted predatory direwolves, sabretooth cats and scavenging vultures, all of which also became trapped and died.

   1988, Barry Cox, Brian Gardiner, R[obert] J[oseph] G[ay] Savage, Dougal Dixon, “Introduction”, in Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals, London: Macmillan, →ISBN, page 10, column 3