DCHP-1 Online
coyote † [< Am. E < Am. Sp. < Nahuatl koyotl] 
1 n. a small wolf, Canis latrans, usually associated with the prairies but found across Canada, mainly in the region south of the range of the larger timber wolf.
See also: brush wolf (def. 1) case(d) wolf gray wolf (def. 2) loper mishagunis prairie wolf timber wolf togony
- 1860 As yet, the wolves and cayotes howl their dreary requiems around its vast solitude, while an occasional grizzly comes out from his lair to see if the white man has yet invaded his favorite gulch.
- 1950 The first biologist to observe the coyote, Thomas Say, in 1819, regarded the animal as "probably the original of the domestic dog so common in the villages of the Indians."
- 1963 An animal newcomer to Ontario is the coyote . . . now found from Manitoba to the Quebec border.
2 n. the skin of the prairie wolf.
- 1924 Lynx and coyote are not warm enough for sleeping in comfort in open camp on a very cold night, and the fur rubs off.
3 n. Slang a cowardly, contemptible person.
- 1890 Some of the boys done it while he was drunk, the mean coyotes.
- 1919 . . . she pleaded for the "wayward boy," as she euphemistically designated this coyote.
4 n. Military Slang, Obs. a second lieutenant.
- 1900 Strictly speaking, a "shavetail" is a "giffin" or "coyote" or "rooster," but frequently is called a "piebiter" and perhaps known even more widely as a "ringtailed snorter."
- 1860 As yet, the wolves and cayotes howl their dreary requiems around its vast solitude, while an occasional grizzly comes out from his lair to see if the white man has yet invaded his favorite gulch.