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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
Krista Simmons and J.d. Simkins, Sunset Magazine, 8 Mar. 2024
Soon, the local wildflower blooms will spread to higher elevations with roadsides to Mount Palomar, Julian and Mount Laguna colored with clusters of lupines, monkey flowers or California poppies.
—Ernie Cowan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 31 Mar. 2024
At the Bald Hills of Redwood National Park, an eruption of lupine and rhododendron typically runs from mid-May through June and blankets the area in purple undulations.
—Krista Simmons and J.d. Simkins, Sunset Magazine, 8 Mar. 2024
The Sutherland Trail offers the best assortment of flowers with poppies, cream cups, lupines, penstemon and desert chicory.
—Roger Naylor, The Arizona Republic, 24 Feb. 2024
The monument trails are lush with native plants and trees (lupine, manzanita, black sage, monkey flower) and populated by wildlife (bobcat, coyote, deer, wild pigs, sheep and the rare mountain lion).
—Sam McManis, Sacramento Bee, 31 Jan. 2024
While the irises are the stars of the show, they’re all set against a backdrop of other beautiful perennials like lupine, allium, poppies, and delphinium.
—Elizabeth Brownfield, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024
Bluebonnets come from a few species of lupines that include the Texas bluebonnet, Lupinus texensis, sandyland bluebonnet, Lupinus subcarnosus, and the Big Bend bluebonnet, Lupinus havardii.
—David Montesino, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 23 Feb. 2024
Look carefully for swaths of wild lupine, glowing purple and majestic.
—Chelsee Lowe, Travel + Leisure, 29 Mar. 2023
Amanda Hess, New York Times, 17 Dec. 2019
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, 29 Sep. 2017
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lupine.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Lupine.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lupine. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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