Forms: see WOLF sb. and HEAD sb.
1. The head of a wolf; a figure of this, e.g., as a heraldic bearing.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 360. To slæpe, wulfes heafod leʓe under þone pyle.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 1093. Alle falterde þe flesche in his foule lyppys, Ilke wrethe as a wolfe-hevede, it wraythe owtt at ones!
1586. Ferne, Blaz. Gentrie, 230. Hugh the firste Earle of Chester, was surnamed de Loupe, because he bare a Wolfes head in his shield.
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, III. xv. 145. Hee beareth Azure, two Barres, Argent, on a Canton Sable, a Wolues head Errased of the second.
1875. F. T. Buckland, Log-Bk., 5. A young man holding a wolf’s head high up in the air.
1891. Daily Tel., 16 April, 7/2. Minnesota spent last year twenty-five thousand dollars in bounties on wolf-heads brought in.
2. Old English Law. A cry for the pursuit of an outlaw as one to be hunted down like a wolf; transf. (orig. in phr. to cry wolf’s head) an outlaw.
17th-century law books have various corrupt forms, as wolferfod, woolfeshered, woolferthfod, wolfetchsod.
[c. 1000. Laws Edw. Conf., vi. Lupinum enim gerit caput a die utlagationis sue, quod ab Anglis uulfesheued nominatur.]
c. 1300[?]. Mirr. Justices, IV. iv. (Selden Soc.), 125. E point ne vient, qe des adunc le tiegne lem pur lou e est criable Wolvesheved, pur ceo qe lou est beste haie de tote gent.
c. 1400. Gamelyn, 700 (Harl. MS.). Whan Gamelyn her lorde wolues-heed was cryed & made.
1430–40. Lydg., Bochas, VII. 1261. Out of ther court banyshed was prudence,… Cried woluis hed was vertuous sobirnesse.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xxi. 139. Now wols-hede and out-horne on the be tane!
1865. Kingsley, Herew., i. By that time I shall be a wolf’s head, and out of the law.
1914. G. F. Macmunn, in Blackw. Mag., Jan., 95/2. There was, after all, likely to be vengeance on these cruel wolfheads for whose death the whole countryside cried aloud.
