Talk:wolf ticket

This term is attested since circa 1964. One early sense used in AAVE was "nonsense; empty talk; bull", but I can only find one citation of it so far: - -sche (discuss) 14:38, 23 March 2015 (UTC)
 * c. 1960s or 1970s, patient 14, quoted by Jacqueline P. Wiseman in Stations of the Lost: The Treatment of Skid Row Alcoholics (1970, 1979), page 146:
 * Patient inmates describe therapy and the therapists as follows:
 * In general, group therapy is . . .
 * ["]Fried ice cream and wolf tickets.["]
 * (Wolf tickets are a Southern Negro term referring to selling tickets to a wolf hunt that is never held.)
 * Wikipedia and several other sources have the alternatively etymology "from woofing, meaning aimless talk, an onomatopoeic reference to the sound of dogs barking. The expression is usually used as a part of the phrase "to sell wolf tickets", meaning to bluff or threaten someone in a boastful way, or "to buy wolf tickets", meaning to call the bluff or accept the implied challenge."