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The article is devoted to the study of French phraseological units with the component loup (wolf) and to the consideration of classification principles, which allows for the fullest disclosure of the associative potential of animalrelated phraseological units. The sources for the study include the dictionaries of the French language by V.G. Gak, Tresor de la Langue Francaise, etc.; and works of fiction (e.g. Lafontaine, Maupassant, etc.) as well as popular scientific literature (e.g. Buffon) that influenced the collective ideas of the French. The theoretical basis of the study was provided by the works of G.G. Molchanova, L.I. Bogdanova, G.G. Sokolova, N.D. Arutyunova and others. The article proposes a four-stage classification that allows us to identify the meanings of the mentioned phraseological expressions taking into account 1) references; 2) evaluative characteristics (general evaluative and particular evaluative); 3) functions (identifying and qualifying); 4) the direction of metaphorical transfer (animal → human/ phenomenon and human → animal). The results of the study showed that most of the associations are based on the biological features of the loup/wolf and its behavioural characteristics; many phraseological phrases have negative or neutral evaluation and perform a qualifying function. All examples with the phraseologism loup (wolf) illustrate the transfer of features from an animal to a human or phenomenon, the reverse transfer was not revealed.