wolf's head

noun

noun

Etymology Calque of Latin caput lupinum.

Law UK, Obsolete In mediaeval times, an outlaw; one who may be slain without judicial enquiry.

“Bonny times,” he said, “I have lived to see, when a lad of Earl Oslac’s blood is sent out of the land, a beggar and a wolf’s head, for playing a boy’s trick or two, and upsetting a shaveling priest.”.1866, Charles Kingsley, Hereward the Wake, London: Nelson, page 48:

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