wolf

cry wolf call for help when it is not needed; raise a false alarm.

☞ An old fable tells the tale of a shepherd boy who constantly raised false alarms with cries of 'Wolf!', until people no longer took any notice of him. When a wolf did actually appear and attack him, his genuine cries for help were ignored and no one came to his aid.

have (or hold) a wolf by the ears be in a precarious position.

☞ The saying became current in English in the mid 16th century, but the Roman comic dramatist Terence (195–159bc) mentions its Latin equivalent, lupum auribus tenere, as already being an old saying in his time. Compare with have a tiger by the tail (attiger).

1990George WillSuddenly A Communist Party administering an economy is holding a wolf by the ears.

lone wolf: seelone.

keep the wolf from the door have enough money to avert hunger or starvation.

☞ The phrase has been used in this sense since the mid 16th century, but the image of the wolf as a symbol of a devouring and destructive force is found much earlier than this. In Matthew 10:16, for example, Jesus tells his disciples: 'Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves'.

throw someone to the wolves leave someone to be roughly treated or criticized without trying to help or defend them. informal

☞ This phrase probably arose in reference to tales about packs of wolves pursuing travellers in horse-drawn sleighs, in which one person was pushed off the sleigh to allow it to go faster, so enabling the others to make their escape.

1958Listener This able and agreeable doctor was thrown to the wolves by a Prime Minister who had good reason to know that his own position was desperate.

a wolf in sheep's clothing a person or thing that appears friendly or harmless but is really hostile and dangerous.

☞ This expression comes from Jesus's words in Matthew 7:15: 'Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves'.