wolf's head

English

Etymology

Calque of Latin caput lupinum.

Noun

wolf's head (plural wolf's heads)

1. (UK, obsolete, law) In mediaeval times, an outlaw; one who may be slain without judicial enquiry.
   • 1866, Charles Kingsley, Hereward the Wake, London: Nelson, page 48:

     “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.”.