lone wolf

What it means

A lone wolf is someone who chooses to act, work, or live independently rather than as part of a group. The phrase can be neutral or admiring when used about self-reliant professionals, but in security and crime contexts a 'lone wolf' attacker is one who acts alone, without an organization.

Examples

• He's a lone wolf in the office — productive, but never at the team lunches.
• She's always been a lone wolf when it comes to traveling.
• Lone-wolf investors sometimes outperform big funds.
• Officials warned that the threat came from lone-wolf actors, not a network.

Where it comes from

Wolves usually live in packs, so a solitary wolf became a natural metaphor for a person separated from the group. The figurative use in English is recorded from the late 1800s, popularized in 20th-century fiction, journalism, and security writing.

Related idioms