wolve

present singular third person wolves · participle present wolving · participle past wolved · past wolved

1. intransitiveTo behave like a wolf.
2. intransitiveOf an organ, to make a hollow whining sound like that of a wolf.

   he had returned to his schoolboy's script, to distant Evensongs, to the wolving of the ancient chapel organ as the last light is extinguished and the door latched for the long night.

   2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 784

3. raretransitiveRare form of wolf (“to devour; to gobble; to eat (something) voraciously”).

   I’d rather be the wolf than be wolved.

   1941 February 25, “Cut-Throat Enemies Outwitted By ‘Desert Rat’ By Sly Tactics”, in Arizona Republic, 51st year, number 283, Phoenix, Ariz., page two, column 4

   4 more examples

   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.”

   1838 November 16, “Measure for Measure”, in The Morning Chronicle, number 21,530, London, page [3], column 6

   Already, some of the labourers were unstraddling the benches to go, having wolved a plate or two, and their piece of pie.

   1924, Elliot Paul, Imperturbe: A Novel of Peace Without Victory, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, page 39

   Also, when she wolves 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.”

   1957 July 4, Dawn Powell, edited by Tim Page, The Diaries of Dawn Powell, 1931–1965, South Royalton, Vt.: Steerforth Press, published 1995, →ISBN, page 371

   That chip by this addition became a feast, and the Fernbank manners, as they wolved into it, were revolting.

   1994, Robin Jenkins, The Thistle and the Grail, Edinburgh: Polygon, published 1997, →ISBN, page 78