lone wolf

lone wolf (plural lone wolves)

1. A wolf that is not part of a pack.
   • 1921, Max Brand, chapter XIII, in The Seventh Man‎:

     They knew what it meant; even Joan had heard the cry of the lone wolf hunting in the lean time of winter, and of all things sad, all things lonely, all things demoniacal, the howl of a wolf stands alone.

2. (figuratively) A person who avoids the company of others; a loner; an independent or solitary person.
   • 1899, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter I, in The Sleeper Awakes‎:

     I am a lone wolf, a solitary man, wandering through a world in which I have no part. I am wifeless—childless—who is it speaks of the childless as the dead twigs on the tree of life?

   • 1915, Zane Grey, The Lone Star Ranger‎:

     You'll never mix in. You'll be a lone wolf. I seen that right off. Wal, if a man can stand the loneliness, an' if he's quick on the draw, mebbe lone-wolfin' it is the best.

3. (by extension) A criminal who acts alone, not as part of a group.
   • 2017 October 2, "Las Vegas shooting: At least 58 dead at Mandalay Bay Hotel", in bbc.com, BBC:

     Paddock's motives remain unclear. Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo described the shooting as a "lone wolf" attack. "We have no idea what his belief system was," he said.

   • 2023 October 17, Lisa O'Carroll, Miranda Bryant, Lorenzo Tondo, “Killing of two Swedish football fans in Brussels ‘probably lone wolf’ attack”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     A Tunisian man who killed two Swedish citizens in a terrorist attack in Brussels was “probably a lone wolf”, the Belgian prime minister has said, as Sweden and Italy called for security at Europe’s borders to be tightened.

• lone wolfer
• lone-wolfing