lone wolf

[ lohn woolf ]

noun

1. a person who prefers to live, act, or work alone or independent of others.
2. a criminal who acts alone (often used attributively):

   lone-wolf terrorists.

lone wolf

noun

1. a person who prefers to be alone

Word History and Origins

Origin of lone wolf¹

An Americanism dating back to 1905–10

Idioms and Phrases

A person who prefers to do without the company or assistance of others. For example, Her nursery school teacher described Beth as a lone wolf, an assessment her parents found astonishing . This expression alludes to the tendency of some species of wolf to hunt alone rather than in packs. [c. 1900]

Example Sentences

It’s not the case when you hear, ‘Well, that lone wolf was mentally ill and this has nothing to do with politics, it’s about mental illness.’

From Los Angeles Times

Since Trump is not currently serving as president, I think these complaints would be less likely to provoke the large-scale violence of Jan. 6, but they are very likely to provoke more "lone wolf" violence perpetrated by individuals and small groups.

From Salon

GRT was the motivation for Dylan Roof’s mass murder of Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015, and the motivation for the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue killings of Jews in Pittsburgh, the killing of 23 people, mostly immigrants, at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas in 2019, the murder of 51 Muslims by a white supremacist in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019, and many other “lone wolf” mass killings.

From Salon

It is unclear whether the ongoing attacks are by a lone wolf or a pack.

From BBC

So yeah, I think now the current misconception is that he was a lone wolf acting alone.

From Salon