Wolf

She-wolf of France. Isabella le Bel, wife of Edward II. According to a tradition, she murdered the king by burning his bowels with a hot iron, or by tearing them from his body with her own hands.

Between dog and wolf. In Latin, “Inter canem et lupum”; in French, “Entre chien et loup.” That is, neither daylight nor dark, the blind man’s holiday Generally applied to the evening dusk.

Dark as a wolf’s mouth. Pitch dark.

He has seen a wolf. Said of a person who has lost his voice. Our forefathers used to say that if a man saw a wolf before the wolf saw him he became dumb, at least for a time.

To see a wolf is also a good sign, inasmuch as the wolf was dedicated to Odin, the giver of victory.

He put his head into the wolf’s mouth. He exposed himself to needless danger. The allusion is to the fable of the crane that put its head into a wolf’s mouth in order to extract a bone. The fable is usually related of a fox instead of a wolf. (French.)

Holding a wolf by the ears. So Augustus said of his situation in Rome, meaning it was equally dangerous to keep hold or to let go. Similarly, the British hold of Ireland is like that of Augustus. The French use the same locution: Tenir le loup par les oreilles.

To cry “Wolf!” To give a false alarm. The allusion is to the well-known fable of the shepherd lad who used to cry “Wolf!” merely to make fun of the neighbours, but when at last the wolf came no one would believe him.

In Chinese history it is said that Yëuwâng, of the third Imperial dynasty, was attached to a courtesan named Pao-tse, whom he tried by various expedients to make laugh. At length he hit upon the following: He caused the tocsins to be rung as if an enemy were at the gates, and Pao-tse laughed immoderately to see the people pouring into the city in alarm. The emperor, seeing the success of his trick, repeated it over and over again; but at last an enemy really did come, and when the alarm was given no one paid attention to it, and the emperor was slain. (B.C. 770.) (See AmyclÆan Silence.)

To keep the wolf from the door. To keep out hunger. We say of a ravenous person “He has a wolf in his stomach,” an expression common to the French and Germans. Thus manger comme un loup is to eat voraciously, and wolfs-magen is the German for a keen appetite.