Wild-cat

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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.
        [1913 Webster]
  


     2. (Railroad) Running without control; running along the line
        without a train; as, a wild-cat locomotive.
        [1913 Webster]
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  wildcat
       adj 1: outside the bounds of legitimate or ethical business
              practices; "wildcat currency issued by irresponsible
              banks"; "wildcat stock speculation"; "a wildcat
              airline"; "wildcat life insurance schemes"
       2: without official authorization; "an unauthorized strike";
          "wildcat work stoppage" [syn: {unauthorized}, {unauthorised}]
       3: (of a mine or oil well) drilled speculatively in an area not
          known to be productive; "drilling there would be strictly
          a wildcat operation"; "a wildcat mine"; "wildcat
          drilling"; "wildcat wells"
       n 1: an exploratory oil well drilled in land not known to be an
            oil field [syn: {wildcat well}]
       2: a cruelly rapacious person [syn: {beast}, {wolf}, {savage},
          {brute}]
       3: any small or medium-sized cat resembling the domestic cat
          and living in the wild
       [also: {wildcatting}, {wildcatted}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  66 Moby Thesaurus words for "wildcat":
     Jezebel, Leo, Siberian tiger, adventurous, aleatory, beldam,
     bitch-kitty, bobcat, cat-a-mountain, catamount, chancy, cheetah,
     cougar, dicey, disobedient, full of risk, fury, grimalkin, hag,
     hazardous, headstrong, heady, hellcat, hellhag, insubordinate,
     irresponsible, jaguar, lawless, leopard, licentious, lion, lynx,
     mountain lion, mutinous, ocelot, painter, panther, puma, rampant,
     reinless, riskful, risky, self-willed, she-devil, she-wolf, simba,
     siren, speculative, termagant, tiger, tigress, unaccountable,
     unbridled, unchecked, uncontrolled, uncurbed, undisciplined,
     ungoverned, unreined, unrestrained, venturesome, venturous, virago,
     vixen, willful, witch
  
  

From U.S. Gazetteer (1990) [gazetteer]:

  Wildcat, WV
    Zip code(s): 26376