dire wolf
noun
A large extinct wolf of the Pleistocene epoch, which preyed on large mammals.
- Canis dirus, family Canidae.
- Against the blue of a mountain range - the same profile of peaks I could see from Grandview - were vultures, mammoths, dire wolves, La Brea camels, saber-toothed cats, and giant ground sloths.
- The figures at the top left and bottom right are dire wolves, extinct relatives of wolves and dogs.
Origin
Dire in the sense 'threatening', translating the modern Latin taxonomic name.
- free hit
- not to speak of
- Nottoway
- not to worry
- not trust someone as far as one can throw them
- Notts.
- not turn a hair
- notum
- Notus
- not very
- not want to know
- notwithstanding
- notwithstanding clause
- no two ways about it
- Nouadhibou
- Nouakchott
- noud
- noug
- nougat
- nougatine
- nought
- noughth
- noughties
- noughting
- noughts and crosses