wolf down
B1 informal separable transitive
In simple words
To eat food really fast, like a starving wolf.
Literal meaning: To eat like a wolf, sending food 'down' the throat — 'down' indicates ingestion.
Meanings
1 B1
idiomatic
informal
To eat food very fast and greedily, often without pausing to chew properly or enjoy it.
"She wolfed down her breakfast and ran out the door to catch the bus."
""He wolfed down the food without tasting it.""
— Widely used phrasing in contemporary fiction; exemplified in numerous news articles (e.g. The Guardian food writing, 2010s).
Grammar: separable
Usage notes
Very commonly used in informal speech and writing. The image comes from the way wolves eat prey rapidly. Often signals that the person was very hungry or short on time. Not considered rude to say, though it describes rude eating behaviour.
Commonly used with
food meal sandwich pizza breakfast leftovers
Forms
Base
wolf down
I/you/we/they
3rd person
wolfs down
he/she/it
Past simple
wolfed down
yesterday
Past participle
wolfed down
have + pp
-ing form
wolfing down
continuous
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