Wild-cat to Willock
Wild-cat
(Wild"-cat`) a.
1. Unsound; worthless; irresponsible; unsafe; — said to have been originally applied to the notes of an
insolvent bank in Michigan upon which there was the figure of a panther.
2. (Railroad) Running without control; running along the line without a train; as, a wild-cat locomotive.
Wildebeest
(Wilde"beest`) n. [D. wild wild + beeste beast.] (Zoöl.) The gnu.
Wilded
(Wild"ed) a. Become wild. [R.]
An old garden plant escaped and wilded.
J. Earle. Wilder
(Wil"der) v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wildered ; p. pr. & vb. n. Wildering.] [Akin to E. wild, Dan.
forvilde to bewilder, Icel. villr bewildered, villa to bewilder; cf. AS. wildor a wild animal. See Wild, a.,
and cf. Wilderness.] To bewilder; to perplex.
Long lost and wildered in the maze of fate.
Pope.
Again the wildered fancy dreams
Of spouting fountains, frozen as they rose.
Bryant. Wildering
(Wild"er*ing) n. (Bot.) A plant growing in a state of nature; especially, one which has run
wild, or escaped from cultivation.
Wilderment
(Wil"der*ment) n. The state of being bewildered; confusion; bewilderment.
And snatched her breathless from beneath
This wilderment of wreck and death.
Moore. Wilderness
(Wil"der*ness) n. [OE. wildernesse, wilderne,probably from AS. wildor a wild beast; cf. D.
wildernis wilderness. See Wilder, v. t.]
1. A tract of land, or a region, uncultivated and uninhabited by human beings, whether a forest or a
wide, barren plain; a wild; a waste; a desert; a pathless waste of any kind.
The wat'ry wilderness yields no supply.
Waller. 2. A disorderly or neglected place. Cowper.
3. Quality or state of being wild; wildness. [Obs.]
These paths and bowers doubt not but our joint hands.
Will keep from wilderness with ease.
Milton. Wildfire
(Wild"fire) n.
1. A composition of inflammable materials, which, kindled, is very hard to quench; Greek fire.
Brimstone, pitch, wildfire . . . burn cruelly, and hard to quench.
Bacon. 2. (Med.) (a) An old name for erysipelas. (b) A disease of sheep, attended with inflammation of the
skin.
3. A sort of lightning unaccompanied by thunder. [R.]
Wildgrave
(Wild"grave`) n. [G. wildgraf or D. wildgraaf. See Wild, and cf. Margrave.] A waldgrave,
or head forest keeper. See Waldgrave.
The wildgrave winds his bugle horn.
Sir W. Scott.
