Word.ws English Dictionary

throw to the wolves

throw to the wolves verb: to sacrifice someone, especially in an attempt to save oneself.

Verb

throw to the wolves (third-person singular simple present throws to the wolves, present participle throwing to the wolves, simple past threw to the wolves, past participle thrown to the wolves)

  1. (idiomatic) To sacrifice someone, especially in an attempt to save oneself.
  2. (idiomatic) To remove or cast out someone or something out of one's protection, such as onto the streets, especially towards predators.

Synonyms of throw to the wolves

Forms of throw to the wolves

third-person singular presentthrows to the wolves
present participlethrowing to the wolves
pastthrew to the wolves
past participlethrown to the wolves

Questions about throw to the wolves

What does throw to the wolves mean?
Throw to the wolves means to sacrifice someone, especially in an attempt to save oneself.
What part of speech is throw to the wolves?
Throw to the wolves is a verb.
What is the past tense of throw to the wolves?
The past tense of throw to the wolves is threw to the wolves.

Words near throw to the wolves in the dictionary

  1. throw things at the wall and see what sticks
  2. throw to the dogs
  3. throw to the lions
  4. throw to the wind
  5. throw to the winds
  6. throw to the wolves
  7. throw together
  8. throw true
  9. throw under a bus
  10. throw under the bus
  11. throw up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: throw to the wolves (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-throw to the wolves.ogg.

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