Forms: 6–9 wolvering, 8– wolverene, -ine (6 wool-, ulvering(e, 7 woolverin(e, Sc. voluering). [app. f. wolv-, inflexional stem of WOLF sb., but the formation is obscure.]
1. The glutton (Gulo luscus), now esp. the North American variety: see GLUTTON A. 4.
1574. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), 236. Furres of woolveringes for pedlers capps.
1591. G. Fletcher, Russe Commw. (Hakl. Soc.), 14. Their beasts … are the losh,… the beare, the wolvering or wood dogge.
1619. Middleton, Love & Antiq., D 1. Beasts bearing Furr,… Racoone, Moashye, Woluerine.
1747. G. Edwards, Nat. Hist. Birds, II. 103. The Quick-Hatch, or Wolverene.
1812. J. Smyth, Pract. Customs (1821), 225. Wolvering is a large animal, almost equal in size to the wolf.
1820. Harmon, Jrnl. Voy. N. Amer., 426. The carcajou or wolverine, in shape and the colour of the hair, greatly resembles the skunk.
1855. Longf., Hiaw., xvi. 40. How the Wolverine, uprising, Made him ready for the encounter.
1896. Kipling, Seven Seas, Song of Dead, 8. Where the wolverine tumbles their packs from the camp.
2. The fur of the wolverene.
1596. Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc., 1861), 2. A cassocke of grogran edged wth ulveringe.
1612. Sc. Bk. Rates, in Halyburton’s Ledger (1867), 307. Furres called … Volueringis the peice, vi li.
1833. Act 3 & 4 Will. IV., c. 56. Wolverings, undressed.
1890. Daily News, 28 Jan., 7/2. It is already prophesied that wolverine is to be the favourite fur next winter.
1895. Kipling, 2nd Jungle Bk., 158. The long wolverine-fur fringe of her ermine hood.
3. A nickname for an inhabitant of Michigan. So Wolverine State, Michigan.
1835. C. F. Hoffman, Winter in Far West, I. 207. The genuine wolverine, or naturalized Michiganian.
1847. Congressional Globe, 5 Feb., 332/2. A great Government bank—… a full-grown … Wolverine wild-cat.
1875. Chamb. Jrnl., 13 March, 171/2. Michigan is Lake State or Wolverine State; Wolverines, not Lakers, have there a habitation.
