throw to the wolves

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

To abandon or sacrifice someone to a difficult or hostile situation

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Bỏ rơi hoặc hy sinh ai đó cho tình huống khó khăn hoặc thù địch

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to toss to carnivorous mammals
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The company threw their employee to the wolves by not supporting him in the lawsuit

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “throw to the wolves” mean?

To abandon or sacrifice someone to a difficult or hostile situation Literally: to toss to carnivorous mammals

Is “throw to the wolves” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.