To sell wolf tickets, or woof tickets, is to lie, bluff, brag, talk big, or challenge someone without really meaning to fight. The expression likely draws on the old tale of the boy who cried wolf, and known uses go back to the 1940s. The woof...
Sell wolf tickets, also found as sell woof tickets, means to make loud, boastful threats without much behind them. In African American English, the companion phrase buy wolf tickets means to take those threats seriously. Geneva Smitherman, a...
wolf ticket n.— «Ah, but my favorite phrase that the boys enlightened me on was wolf ticket or wolfin’ Huh? Yeah, I had no clue, either. It means someone’s lying. Why wolf ticket? It’s a play off the story of the boy who cried wolf. The offending...