[Cf. G. wolfshund.]
1. Any of several large varieties of dog formerly kept for hunting wolves, esp. the Irish greyhound or wolf-hound.
1652. Order Ir. Privy Council, 27 April. Such great dogges as are commonly called Wolfe dogges,… which are useful for destroying of wolves.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 16 June 1670. The bulls did exceeding well, but the Irish wolfe-dog exceeded, which was a tall greyhound.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 180. Wolf-dogs (once so useful and celebrated) were perhaps peculiar to Ireland, but that species is now nearly extinct.
1840. C. H. Smith, Dogs, II. 139. The Great Wolf-dog is not common in central Europe; and appears at present almost confined to Spain.
1845. Youatt, Dog, 66. The Italian or Pomeranian wolf-dog.
1884. Tennyson, Becket, III. ii. When that horn sounds, a score of wolf-dogs are let loose.
2. A cross of a domestic dog and a wolf; recently in Alsatian wolf-dog, popular name of a dog produced by crossing the German sheep-dog with a strain of wolf.
1736. Ainsworth, Lycisca, a dog ingendered of a wolf and a bitch, or a shepherd’s dog, a wolf dog.
1755. Johnson.
1910. Encycl. Brit., VIII. 377/1. The black wolfdog of Florida resembles the black wolf of the same region.
1924. R. Arundel, Police Dogs, 6. The German Sheep Dog (known in this country as the Alsatian Wolf Dog).
