Dictionary

wolve down en · VERB

Meanings

1. (form-of, uncommon) Uncommon form of wolf down.
   form of wolf down
   • An old goat in Wichita, Kan., that for years had eaten everything in sight—and once had given birth to quintuplets—wolved down a mild pack of cigarets the other day, and never recovered. 1942 February 16, Gladwin Hill, “Animals Lead Goofy News: Show Odd Eating, Drinking Trends”, in The Billings Gazette, 56th year, number 289, Billings, Mont., page three, column 3:
   • “Do they really have phones in Salem?” I needled her as I wolved down a cup of Flem’s famous black coffee. 1975 September 19, “A Case In-Point”, in Greater Oregon, volume 67, number 30, Albany, Ore., page 2, column 2:
   • They waved and left a gift of whale blubber, which the sailors wolved down, raw, and then gagged back up. 2001, Jeanne Mackin, The Sweet By and By, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 202:
   • She wolved down an Eggo waffle, all she could find in the freezer—she’d have to pick up groceries later. 2003, William Schutter, Carole Greene, The Professor, Stone Bridge Press, →ISBN, page 44:
   • — v. eat greedily: He wolves down his food. [1990, Thomas M. Paikeday, editor, The Penguin Canadian Dictionary, Markham, Ont.: Penguin Books Canada; Missassauga, Ont.: Copp Clark Pitman, →ISBN, page 836, column 2:
   • I was wolving down great chunks of Mother Young’s bread, smeared with guava jam, but hardly touched the rather insipid, synthetic “tea.” 1935 December 1, Alexander MacDonald, “Pitcairn today: A sequel to Mutiny”, in The Honolulu Advertiser, 80th year, number 17,551, Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii:
   • He wolves down the sandwich and then looks back at me. 2022, Rosa Swann, Celebrating a Birthday (Making a Family; 8), 2nd edition, Easily Distracted Media:
   • The only reason he has told you not to break the bones is because he wants all the marrow for himself since that’s the tastiest part. Look at how he wolves down the greatest share for himself. 2010, Heilan Yvette Grimes, The Norse Myths, Boston, Mass.: Hollow Earth Publishing, →ISBN, page 85:
   • After relating their 35-hour ordeal, they^([sic]) boys wolved down a big dinner and then slept for nearly 18 hours. 1980 September 10, Ellie Posey, “Trio’s error ended up saving a life”, in Billings Gazette, 97th year, number 131, Billings, Mont., page 14-A, column 2:
   • Instead, he ordered a number of dishes without thinking about the taste or expense. When they came, he just wolved down the food. How repulsive, I thought, it was to watch the rice, meat, fish and vegetables meshed by the relentless grinding of his teeth? 1993, K.S. Maniam [pseudonym; Subramaniam Krishnan], In a Far Country (Skoob Pacifica; 2003), London: Skoob Books Publishing, →ISBN, page 61:
   • He wolved down a quantity of watermelon, cantaloupes, bananas and oranges. 1956 August 5, “Gorilla Celebrates”, in Sunday Herald-Leader, volume 20, number 32, Lexington, Ky., page 16, column 7:
   • The egg rolls were fantastic. We each wolved down two of them within minutes. 1982 July 30, Dan Bernstein, “Restaurant Offers A Taste Of The Orient”, in The Heartland Tribune (an edition of The Tampa Tribune), page 2, column 2:
   • The woman bowed herself out but returned instantly with bowls of hot chili and frankfurters. This collation was wolved down amid whispered gratitude. 1976, Peter Ritner, The Passion of Richard Thynne, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, Inc., →ISBN, page 45:
   • He got this “starter” for fresh bread from a fellow woodsman. My only participation in this story, other than wolving down this delicious stuff, was to encourage him to “get the recipe” after he kept bringing home loaves. 1992 May 11, Sylvia Krupp, “Down the lazy river of vacation”, in Springfield News-Sun, Springfield, Oh., page 9, column 1:
   • Let him know that you enjoyed the kiss, that you went weak at the knees, sigh and say mmm like you’ve just wolved down a jar of cream. 1999 January 26, Mirabel Richie, article, in Hints; republished in The Guardian, London, 6 February 1999, section “The Editor”, page 21:
   • The Democratic rally cost the faithful $25 a plate or a “$1 a gulp” as one playful wag declared as he wolved down breast of chicken and Smithfield ham, which was served as the main course. 1950 March 3, “Byrd Next President? Battle Says ‘Possibly’”, in The Roanoke Times, volume 127, number 62, Roanoke, Va., page thirty-three:
   • Holding the basin in one hand, Alitet threw chunks of meat into the jaws of the dogs with the other. They wolved down the meat and waited, their eyes glistening for more. 1922, Tikhon Syomushkin, translated by B. Isaacs, Alitet Goes to the Hills, 2nd edition, Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, page 588:
   • I heard the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but that is not the case with Owen. He wolves down his food and retreats to his room, shutting the door behind him. 2023, Kylie Gilmore, chapter 6, in The Kissing Part (Happy Endings in Clover Park; 1), Extra Fancy Books, →ISBN:
   • THE popular lunch place is also our favorite dinner resort! For Ellen McCauley’s steak and fried chicken is the best you ever wolved down! 1934 July 29, Sue the Shopper, “Thru the Shops with Sue”, in Des Moines Sunday Register, volume 86, number 38, Des Moines, Ia., section eight (Society), page two, column 7:
   • By the time Chandrapriya and her sister entered home, the ritual of punishment must have been over, because they saw that Dharmeswar was wolving down large quantities of rice. 1999, Nirupama Bargohain, translated by Pradipto Borgohain, chapter 3, in Abhiyatri: One Life Many Rivers, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, →ISBN, page 9:
   • The neighborhood pizza shop is irresistible, and he wolves down two slices of pizza, one on top of the other. 1996 February, David Rosenbaum, “Behind the Dressing Room Door”, in Inside Wrestling, Ambler, Pa.: London Publishing Co., →ISSN, page 12, column 1:
   • The first batch usually comprised the feral eaters with no social life. They wolved down, off almost clean plates, the hot food of a dreary menu and subsequently wrote reams in the Complaints Register. 2006, Upamanyu Chatterjee, “Hindi Lesson”, in Weight Loss, London: Penguin Books, published 2007, →ISBN, page 124:
   • Other than those reverse notes, things were happily normal Sunday as the Longhorn squad wolved down steaks and Texas-size glasses of tea in the athletic dining room. 1970 August 24, Bill Halstead, “Royal Nixes Comer Return”, in The Austin American, volume 57, number 88, Austin, Tex., page 21, column 5:
   • Near the end of the first night of Red Deer’s second annual Oktoberfest, the hungry crowd had already wolved down one-third of the food supplies. 1973 October 20, Rick Zemanek, “Oktoberfest braces for more than 1,000”, in The Advocate, Red Deer, Alta., page 3:
   • Typical Singaporean lunch bento wolved down in 5 minutes 2020, Chan Joon Yee, Not Quite Over The Hill: Swinging My Way to 60 and Beyond, Dewdrop Books:
   • Her proud eye spectacles are the most prominent of her accessories as she wolves down leaflets, brochures and footnotes of information about the legal system. 2020, Shikha Singh, A Barrel of Honey (Life’s Peril), Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh: Booksclinic Publishing, →ISBN, page 90:
   • There have been bitter cold days wading in northern Montana reservoirs at ice-out while hungry rainbows wolved down Wooly Worms. 1988 March 13, Eric Wiltse, “Winter fishing wardrobe goes high-tech for best results”, in The Sun Herald, volume 104, number 165, Biloxi, Miss., page D■9, column 1:
   • […] tell them a Nasredin Hoja story I had heard from my grandfather, while they wolved down everything in sight. 1983, Haig Baronian, Barefoot Boy from Anatolia, page 25:
   • They ate their meal in a silence broken only by throaty sounds from the Chief, who wolved down his pounded yam in large morsels and tore at his chicken with savage ferocity. 1992, Omowunmi Segun, The Third Dimple, Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books (Nigeria) PLC, →ISBN, page 172:
   • At last we find some grub. They are ‘US field rations’. Like animals we wolve down these delicacies. 2015, Donald E. Graves, Blood and Steel 3: The Wehrmacht Archive: The Ardennes Offensive, December 1944 to January 1945, Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Frontline Books, Pen & Sword Books Ltd, →ISBN, page 32:
   • When she saw her handsome Master wolving down his food, Hua Qiyue retreated helplessly to one side and tried to cultivate. 2022, Zhuo Hua, “His Secret”, in The General’s Genius Daughter, Beijing Book Co. Inc., →ISBN:
   • Wolving down / WHILE the Lakers and 76ers battle it out for the NBA championship, one player seemed less than interested. Terrell Brandon, starting guard with the Minnesota Timberwolves, was celebrating his birthday at the Shorebird, the spot on the beach where you can cook your own fish or steak and plow through the all-you-can- eat salad bar … 2001 June 14, Dave Donnelly, “Celebrating her 90th and still going strong”, in Honolulu Star-Bulletin, volume 1, number 90, page B14, column 2:
   • Copper wolves down his portion and shows his appreciation with a loud belch. 2015, David C. Pappas, “Punta Del Este to Stanley — The Roaring Forties”, in The One Eyed Albatross, Denver, Colo.: Outskirts Press, →ISBN, page 188:
   • These anglers know that heavyweight muskies go prowling close to shore late in the autumn, wolving down meals of three and four-pound pickerel and pike, and snacking on victims of lesser magnitude such as perch, rock bass and sunfish. 1981 November 5, Grant Hopkins, “Muskie fishermen hook some big ones in November”, in The Citizen, Ottawa, Ont., page 33:
   • For instance, scenes two through five delineate a shockingly amoral character who consumes human beings with the same gusto and nonchalance with which he wolves down food and wine. 1983, Douglas Kellner, “Expressionist Literature and the Dream of the “New Man””, in Stephen Eric Bronner, Douglas Kellner, editors, Passion and Rebellion: The Expressionist Heritage, South Hadley, Mass.: J. F. Bergin Publishers, Inc.; New York, N.Y.: Universe Books, →ISBN, section “Literature and Theater”, page 184:
   • To those already aboard we gave dozens and dozens of bananas brought from Tahiti. And how those kids wolved them down! A bite, a gulp and a whole one was gone. 1935 March 24, “Scientists Go To Work”, in The Honolulu Advertiser, 79th year, number 17,299, Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, page eight, column 4:
   • They were frozen almost solid but I wolved down about two dozen of the chilled fruits before I eased my pangs of hunger. 1933 May 29, Alexander MacDonald, “On the Beach at Waikiki”, in Honolulu Star-Bulletin, number 17745 (Evening Bulletin)/volume XL, number 12886 (Hawaiian Star), Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, page eleven:
   • Hungry athletes wolved down mountains of food served by Debbie Braun, Anne Holmen, Diane Ellard, Marlene Whitten, and Eileen Arthur who also assisted with the draw prizes for largest family, oldest and youngest skier. 1993 February 2, Walter Scott, “Over 200 cross-country skiers participate in Loppet”, in Vermilion Standard, volume 85, number 5, Vermilion, Alta., page A5, column 1:
   • After they had wolved down some of the pieces of pizza, they noticed that there were several video games in the corner. 1982 July 25, Gerda [Weissmann] Klein, “Stories for Young Readers: Spaced Out in a Pizza Parlor”, in The Buffalo News, volume CCIV, number 106, Buffalo, N.Y.:
   • All these executives have probably been too busy writing memos and wolving down blood-pressure medicine to read “Further Up the Organization” by Robert Townsend. 1991 July 1, Joe Mullich, “Take this memo — all the way to the shredder”, in Business Monday (Intelligencer Journal), volume 6, number 26, Lancaster, Pa., page 2, column 4:
   • Both Ryan and Ruth sat at the dining table, and one was more in a hurry than the other as they wolved down their food. 2022, Suzie, Punished by His Love, book 11:
   • We wolved down some snacks, two MRE’s each and made some coffee! 2021, Brian Hughes, 71 Mph: A Travel Journal Written for You and Me:
   • Ben wolved down a digestive biscuit, then stretched out on his stomach on the flagstones beside them. 1990, Peter James, Sweet Heart, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, →ISBN, page 156:
   • As a lover of soft tacos, I ordered a pair of chicken tacos and a 16-ounce soda with an out-the-door price at just over $5. I should have kept it at just one, though, as they were stuffed with jack and cheddar cheese, lettuce, a mild, homemade salsa along with goodly sized chucks of chicken. I wolved both down, however. 1999 April 14, Bruce Maulden, “New Jalapeño’s owners continue tradition for great, tasty food”, in Five Cities Times-Press-Recorder, volume 111, number 53, Arroyo Grande, Calif., page 5B, columns 1–2:
   • He’s already wolved down his hamburger but he still looks hungry as he stares down into the street below with intent brown eyes. 1980 October 26, John Stanley, “Armand Assante — His Own Story”, in San Francisco Examiner, volume 1980, number 43, San Francisco, Calif., page 46:

Forms