adj., wild·er, wild·est.
- Occurring, growing, or living in a natural state; not domesticated, cultivated, or tamed: wild geese; edible wild plants.
- Not inhabited or farmed: remote, wild country.
- Uncivilized or barbarous; savage.
- Lacking supervision or restraint: wild children living in the street.
- Disorderly; unruly: a wild scene in the school cafeteria.
- Characterized by a lack of moral restraint; dissolute or licentious: recalled his wild youth with remorse.
- Lacking regular order or arrangment; disarranged: wild locks of long hair.
- Full of, marked by, or suggestive of strong, uncontrolled emotion: wild with jealousy; a wild look in his eye; a wild rage.
- Extravagant; fantastic: a wild idea.
- Furiously disturbed or turbulent; stormy: wild weather.
- Risky; imprudent: wild financial schemes.
- Impatiently eager: wild to get away for the weekend.
- Informal. Highly enthusiastic: just wild about the new music.
- Based on little or no evidence or probability; unfounded: wild accusations; a wild guess.
- Deviating greatly from an intended course; erratic: a wild bullet.
- Games. Having an equivalence or value determined by the cardholder's choice: playing poker with deuces wild.
In a wild manner: growing wild; roaming wild.
n.
- A natural or undomesticated state: returned the zoo animals to the wild; plants that grow abundantly in the wild.
- An uninhabited or uncultivated region. Often used in the plural: the wilds of the northern steppes.
To go about in a group threatening, robbing, or attacking others: "Police said that the youngsters ... were part of a larger group of teenagers who were 'wilding,'-their slang for terrorizing and bullying" (Maclean's).
[Middle English wilde, from Old English.]
wildly wild'ly adv.wildness wild'ness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
