timber wolf
- noun
- /ˈtɪmbər wʊlf/
- US
- Timber wolf.
- timber wolf population
- gray timber wolf
- Eastern timber wolf
Examples
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Here, they carefully evaluated the many gifts donated by others and determined which jewelry to purchase, how much a child (or adult) would appreciate a puppet of a timber wolf, what foods could serve as a special meal, and how badly they wanted to attend AEC 2004 in Alaska.
Academic text (2003) -
There is a place in these mountains where a new breed of timber wolf roams... wiser than man or wolf... because of the dog that runs at the head of the pack.
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The temper of a timber wolf.
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It's like that of the timber wolf, anywhere within a 50-mile radius.
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He's a timber wolf and really can't take a joke!
Fiction book (2001) -
Slavers don't get you, then the copperheads or the timber wolves will.
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Might have been a griz or a timber wolf or a painter, but sooner or later that dog would have wound up in one belly or another. "I could have taken care of him," argued Morgan.
Fiction book (1994) -
He puts the crosshairs on the shoulder flank of a big, ivory-white timber wolf, fifty yards away.
Fiction book (1993) -
Black bears, white-tailed deer, otters, timber wolves, beavers, and hundreds of species of birds are some of the many inhabitants of Algonquin.
Academic text (2005) -
In the dense forests of Canada, the timber wolf is known for its distinctive howls during the night.
Synonyms
A large wild dog that usually hunts in packs
A large wild animal like a dog with gray fur that lives in forests and often hunts in packs
A large wild dog called the gray wolf that lives in forests in North America, Eurasia, and North Africa
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is transparently composed: 'timber' (wooded land/forest) modifies 'wolf', so a B1 learner who knows both words can readily infer a wolf associated with wooded/forest areas. This noun+noun type denotation of a subtype by habitat is a common, cross-linguistic pattern, making the meaning predictable from the parts.
Etymology
The name timber wolf comes from people long ago who used timber to mean 'forest', so timber + wolf gives the picture of a wolf living among the trees. So today the name means the large North American wolf that lives in forests.