Definition of LUPIN

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Lupine comes from lupus, Latin for "wolf", and its related adjective lupinus, "wolfish". Lupine groups have a highly organized social structure, with leaders and followers clearly distinguished; dogs, since they're descended from wolves, often show these lupine patterns when living in groups. Stories of children raised by wolves (the most famous being Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome) have generally been hard to prove, partly because "wild" children lack human language abilities and can't describe their experiences. Lupine is also a noun, the name of a well-known garden flower, which was once thought to drain, or "wolf", the soil of its nutrients.

Examples of lupine in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun Beyond Meat and Nestle’s Sweet Earth use peas for their meatless dishes; Unilever’s The Vegetarian Butcher uses lupine beans to give some meals a fatty, nutty flavor. — Washington Post, "For Business, Veganism Is the New Vaping," 27 Sep. 2019 The caterpillars of this butterfly feed only on lupine, also known as blue bonnets to Texans, a wildflower that thrives along some power line corridors. — David L. Wagner, The Conversation, "New England power line corridors harbor rare bees and other wild things," 3 Oct. 2019 Other, lower-living species—showy gentians, a spiky aster relative called Chuquiraga, purple lupines—had moved upslope by an average of more than 500 meters since 1802. — Tim Appenzeller, Science | AAAS, "Global warming has made iconic Andean peak unrecognizable," 11 Sep. 2019 This craggy basalt mesa is, per its name, flat as a tabletop, but in spring vastly more beautiful, dotted with leafing-out oaks and brilliant with lupine and poppies and vernal pools that reflect the sky. — Peter Fish, San Francisco Chronicle, "Road trip along Sierra Nevada’s Feather River," 16 Mar. 2018 This stretch travels through black oak savanna, with lupine and burly oaks. — Chelsey Lewis, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Trails, beaches and more things to do in Indiana Dunes National Park," 20 Feb. 2019 SNÆFELLSNES PENINSULA Days 4-6 Travel north of the city, and hike through fields of purple lupines to reach the top of one of Iceland’s highest waterfalls. — National Geographic, "Iceland Middle School Expedition," 12 June 2019 Other forms of lupine resourcefulness are more natural. — Ben Goldfarb, National Geographic, "The secret lives of fish-eating, beaver-ambushing wolves of Minnesota," 21 June 2019 His displays include dahlias, cannas, calla lilies, oriental lilies, day lilies, hydrangeas, climbing hydrangeas, rhododendrons, pink, white, purple, roses, peonies, rudbeckias, coneflowers, clematis, lupines and many others. — courant.com, "Community News For The West Hartford Edition," 15 June 2019 Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective Every few months an Italian landowner, angry at having lost livestock to lupine jaws, will shoot a wolf and dump its corpse by the roadside – sometimes mutilated or decapitated – in protest against government policy. — Nick Squires, The Christian Science Monitor, "Where Romulus suckled, wolves roam again," 29 Sep. 2017 Lupine fix nitrogen from the air in their roots and leaves, and are helping to nourish the ground, said Josh Chenoweth, restoration botanist for the park. — Lynda V. Mapes, The Seattle Times, "At Elwha River, forests, fish and flowers where there were dams and lakes," 3 July 2017 Nimitz frequently took hikes in Tilden, particularly around the Botanic Garden and the roadway at Inspiration Point that would be named for him, and would scatter lupine seeds along the way of his weekly outings. — Chris Treadway, The Mercury News, "Admiral, sower of Berkeley wildflowers, made history 75 years ago," 4 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'lupine.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.