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Lupine comes from lupus, Latin for "wolf", and its related adjective lupinus, "wolfish". Lupine groups have a highly organized social structure, with leaders and followers clearly distinguished; dogs, since they're descended from wolves, often show these lupine patterns when living in groups. Stories of children raised by wolves (the most famous being Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome) have generally been hard to prove, partly because "wild" children lack human language abilities and can't describe their experiences. Lupine is also a noun, the name of a well-known garden flower, which was once thought to drain, or "wolf", the soil of its nutrients.
Examples of lupine in a Sentence
Leanne Potts, Better Homes & Gardens, 1 Feb. 2025
And since the gory glory days of 1980s horror, artists like Rob Bottin and Rick Baker have turned those lupine transformation scenes into special-effects showstoppers.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 15 Jan. 2025
Amanda Hess, New York Times, 17 Dec. 2019
Every few months an Italian landowner, angry at having lost livestock to lupine jaws, will shoot a wolf and dump its corpse by the roadside – sometimes mutilated or decapitated – in protest against government policy.
—Nick Squires, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 Sep. 2017
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Cite this Entry
“Lupine.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lupine. Accessed 7 Feb. 2025.
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