vUd 
tient of restraint or control; stirring; lively; 
boisterous; full of life and spirits; hence, frol- 
icsome ; giddy ; light-hearted. 
Pardon me if I suspect you still ; you are too wild and 
airy to be constant to that affection. 
Shirley, Witty Fair One, ii. 2. 
That the jrtid little thing should take wing; and flyaway 
the Lord knows whither '. Cnlman, Jealous Wife, iii. 
A trild, unworldly-minded youth, given up 
To his own eager thoughts. 
Wordtworth, I'relude, iv. 
Philip was a dear, good, Irank, amiable, vild fellow, and 
they all loved him. Thackeraij, Philip, v. 
2. Boisterous; tempestuous; stormy; \-iolent; 
turbulent; furious; uncontrolled: used iu both 
a physical and a moral sense. 
But that still use of grief makes wad grief tame. 
My tongue should to thy ears not name my boys 
'1111 that my nails were anchor'd in thine eyes. 
Shak., Rich. III., iv. 4. 229. 
His passions and his virtues lie confused, 
And mixt together in so wild a tumult 
That the whole man is quite disfigured in him. 
Addvfon, Cato, iii. 2. 
Long after night had overclouded the prospect I heard 
a wUd wind rushing among trees. 
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, v. 
3t. Bold; brave; daring; wight. 
Of the gretist of Grece & of gret Troy, 
That he hade comyng with in company, & knew well the 
persons, 
As the worthiest to wale & wildeitt in Armys. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 4023. 
4. Loose and disorderly in conduct ; given to 
going beyond bounds in pleasurable indul- 
gence; ungoverned; more or less dissolute, 
wayward, or unrestrained in conduct; prodi- 
gal. 
He kept company with the wild prince and Poins. 
Shak., M. \V. of W., iii. 2. 74. 
Suppose he has beene wild, let me assure you 
He's now reclaim'd, and has my good opinion. 
Brome, .Sparagus Garden, iv. 7. 
5. Reckless; rash; ill-considered; extravagant; 
out of accord with reason or prudence ; hap- 
hazard: as, a !f/W venture ; ip/W trading. 
If I chance to talk a little wild, forgive me; 
I had it from my father. Shak., Hen. VIII., i. 4. -M. 
Are not our streets daily filled with trUd pieces of jus- 
tice and random penalties? Addition, Tatler, No. 2.53. 
The wildegt opinions of every kind were abroad, "divers 
and strange doctrines," witli every wind of which men, 
having no longer an anchor whereby to hold, were car- 
ried about and tossed to and fro. Smdhey, liunyan, p. Ki. 
Johnson, the young bowler, is getting mild, and bowls a 
ball almost wide to the off. 
T. IlmjheK, Tom Brown's School- Days, ii. 8. 
6. Extravagant; fantastic; irregular; disor- 
dered; weird; queer. 
Wild in their attire. Sluik., Macbeth, 1. :i. 40. 
Oft in her [Eeason's] absence mimic fancy wakes 
To imitate her : but, misjoining shapes. 
Wild work produces oft. Milton, P. L., v. 112. 
When man to man gave willing faith, and loved 
A tale the better that 'twas wild and strange. 
Bryant, .Stella. 
7. Enthusiastic; eager; keen; especially, very 
eager with delight, excitement, or the like. 
[Chiefly colloq.] 
And there. 
All wild to found an Ilniversity 
For maidens, on the spur she fled. 
Tennyson, Piincess, i. 
As for Dolly, he was wild about . . . the town, and the 
castle, and the Black Forest. 
Whyte Melville, White Rose, I. xxviii. 
8. Excited; roused; distracted; crazy; be- 
tokening or indicating excitement or strong 
emotion. 
Your looks are pale and wild. Shak., R. and J., v. 1. 28. 
I grow wild. 
And would not willingly believe the truth 
Of my dishonour. Ford, Lover's Melancholy, iv. 1. 
The fictions of Oates bad driven the nation wild. 
Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. 
9. Wide of the mark or direct line, standard, 
or bounds. 
The catcher . . . must begin by a resolution to try for 
everything, and to consider no ball beyond his reach, no 
matter how wUd. W. Cainp, St. Nicholas, XVII. 8:il. 
10. Living in a state of nature ; inhabiting the 
forest or open field; roving: wandering; not 
tame; not domesticated; feral or ferine: as, 
a wild boar; a KiUl ox : a ifUd cat ; a KiUl bee. 
More particularly — (a) Xnting those animals which in 
their relation to man are legally styleil .ferte natune (which 
see, under ferse): opposed to tame^ , 1 (6) (1). 
There aboute ben many goude liylles and fayre, and 
many fayre Wo<jde8, and eke wylde Hecstes. 
StatulevUle. Travels, p. 127. 
In the same forrest are many nnld Bores and mild 
Stagges. Coryat, Crudities, I. 35. 
6924 
(6) Noting beasts of the chase, game-birds, and the like, 
which are noticeably shy, wary, or hard to take under cer- 
tain circumstances: opposed to taine^, 1 (&) (2): as, the 
birds are wUd this morning. 
11. Savage; uncivilized; ungoverned; unre- 
fined; ferocious; sanguinary: noting persons 
or practices. 
The icUdesl savagery. .SAo*., K. John, iv. 3. 48. 
Nations yet ^Hld by Precept to reclaim. 
And teach em Arms, and Arts, in William's Name. 
Prior, Carmen Seculare (1700), st. 37. 
12. Growing or produced without culture ; pro- 
duced by unassisted nature, or by wild ani- 
mals; native; not cultivated: as, wiW parsnip; 
WJW cherry; ic/M honey. 
With wild wood-leaves and weeds I ha' strcw'd his grave. 
Shak., Cymbeline, iv. 2. 390. 
It were good to try what would l>e the effect, if all the 
blossoms were pulled from a fruit-tree, or the acorns and 
chestnut buds, etc., from a mild tree. 
Bacon, Nat. Hist., § 4.'i(]. 
13. Desert; not inhabited ; uncultivated. 
And that contre is full of grete foreste, and full wylde 
to them of the selue contre. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), i. 32. 
These high wUd hills and rough uneven ways 
Draws out our miles, and makes them wearisome. 
Shak., Rich. II., ii. ;!. 4. 
The plain was grassy, wild, and bare. 
Tennyson, Dying Swan. 
A Wild shot, arandom or chance shot. — Ethiopian wild 
boar. Same as AaHi^^. See cut under PAamcte™*.- 
Indian wild lime. See Limonia.—'Io ride the wild 
maret. See ride.— To run ■wild, (a) To grow wild IU' 
savage ; take to vicious courses or a hwse way of living, (ii) 
To escape from domestication and revert to the feral state. 
(c) To escape from cultivation and grow in a wild state.— 
To SOW one's Wild oats. Seeortf.— Wild allspice. Same 
as spice-hush. -yrm ananas, angelica. See the nouns. 
— 'Wild animals, those animals, and especially those 
beasts, which have not been reclaimed from the feral 
state, or ilomesticated for the use and benefit of man : 
technically called /erse natune. —Wild anise-tree. .See 
nnisc— 'Wild apriOOt. See apricot. — VfUd. ash. See 
as/il, — "Wild ass, any member of that section of the 
genus Equus to which the domestic ass belongs, except 
this species. There are several species or varieties, not 
all of which are well determined, native of northern 
Africa, and especially of western and central Asia Some 
are very large, strong, and swift animals, which have been 
distinguished from remote antiquity, and were formerly 
hunted for sport or for their flesh. Representations of 
the chase of wild asses are found on Assyrian monuments, 
and the Hebrew words translated 'wild ass' in the Bible 
indicate their swift-footedness. .See dziggetai and onager 
(with cuts) and femio)i«.— 'Wild balsam-apple, barley, 
basil. See the nouns.— Wild bean. HKvApiusmvXStro- 
phostyles.—'Wm bee, any bee excepting the hive-bee as 
domiciled by man. Both social and solitary wild bees are 
of very numerous species and many genera of the two 
families Apidss and Andrenidee. See these words, and 
also such distinctive names as bumblebee, carj)enter-bee, 
upholsterev-hee, etc., with various cuts ; also imtson-bee, and 
cuts under Anthophora and A'l/iocopa.- Wild beet, Beta 
maritima of Europe, the supposed original of the cultivated 
beet; also, sometimes, the marsh-rosemary, Statice Limo- 
«iuj«.— Wild bergamot, a strongly aromatic labiate 
plant, Monarda fisttilosa, connnon in dry ground in North 
America. The corolla is eonnnonly purplish, an inch long. 
— Wild birds, those birds which are not domesticated ; 
specifically, in Eng. law, those birds that come within the 
provisions of an act passed in 18S0, entitled the Wild Birds 
Protection .\ct, which prohibited the taking or killing of 
any wild bird between certain dates of each year, with some 
exceptions. But the species designated in the schedule an- 
nexed to the act were but about eighty in immber, thus in- 
cluding but a small fraction of the actual avifauna of Eng- 
land; and some of the commonest song-birds it was de- 
sired to protect by this act were left unspecified.- Wild 
boar, buckwheat. See the nouns.— wild brier, the 
dogrose, Rosa canina ; also, the sweet-brier, liosa riibi- 
(/inosa. — Wild camomile. Same as /eoer/cw, 1. — Wild 
canary, the American goldfinch, Spinus or Chrysmnitris 
tristis. See cut under jroWrfiicA. [Local,U.S.l—Wlld ca- 
per. Same as caper-spurge (which see, under spurge).— 
Wildcat. See iriirfcn!.— Wild celery. See I'diiisiwrwi. 
— WUd cherry, chestnut, china-tree, cicely. See the 
nouns.— Wild clnnaimon of the West Indies. See Ca- 
tulla'.—yfild clary, clove, cucumber, cumin. See 
the nouns.— Wild coffee. See cofee and Triosteum.— 
Wild columbine. See honeysuckle, 2.— Wild cotton. 
(a) Same as cotton-grass, (b) See /po?n«?a.— Wild dOg, any 
feral dog, or dog in the state of nature ; also, a ferine dog, or 
one run wild after domestication ; a pariah dog ; specifi- 
cally, the native wild dog of Australia, Cnnis dingo. See 
Canis, CyoyV^, and cuts under buatmiah, dhole, and dingo. 
— Wild dove, in the United States, the common Carolina 
dove, or mourning-dove, Zenaidura carolinensis. The im- 
plied antithesis is wild pigeon, namely, the passenger-pi- 
geon. See cut under done.- Wild duck, any duck except- 
ing the domesticated duck ; specifically, the wild original 
of the domestic duck. Anas boscas (or boschas, or boskas). 
Seecutundermoiiord.- Wild elder. See fMcra. — Wild 
engine. («) A locomotive running over a railway without 
regard to schedule time, (b) A locomotive which by some 
accident or derangement has escaped from the c(jntrol of 
its driver.— Wild fig. See /iff'-'.— WUd flag. See Pater- 
«)Hia.— WUd fowl See M'iid-/OTri. — WUd ginger. See 
i/JHr/erl.- WUd goat, any species of the genus Capra, in 
a broad sense, which has not been domesticated, as the 
ibex, etc. ; specifically, the wild original of the domestic 
goat, C. irgagrus (sec mgagrui, with cut). Several differ- 
ent Hebrew words rendered alike *wild goat' in the Bible 
in different places are believed with good reason to mean 
any one of the ibexes, steinbocks. or bouquetins of Syria, 
Palestine, Arabia, and parts of Egypt— as, for example, 
the beden or jaal-goat. technically C. )aala or )aela, and 
as inhabiting .Mount Sinai named C. sinaitim by Hemp- 
wildcat 
rich and Ehrenberg. These wild goats differ little from 
the common ibex of the Alps — WUd goOSe, a bird of the 
goose kind. orgemisAnser in a broad sense, which is wild 
or feral. In Great Britain the common wild goose is the 
graylag, Anser cinereus or ferus, and the term is applied 
to all the other species which visit that country. (.See cut 
under graylag.) In North America wild goose unquali- 
fied commonly means the Canada goose, Bernicla cana- 
dengis. See cut under Bcr?iic/a.— WUd-goose chase. 
See cAa»el.— WUd-gOOSe plum. See p?«ml. — WUd 
gourd. See vine of Sodom, under cine. —WUd hay, hide, 
Oney, hyssop. See the nouns.— WUd hop, the common 
bryony, Bryonia dioica.— WUd horse, any specimen of the 
horse, Equwi caballus, now living in a state of nature. 
The wild original of the horse is unknown. All the wild 
horses of America and Australia, and probably all those 
of Asia, are the ferine (not truly feral) descendants of the 
domestic hoi-se, which have reverted to the wild state. 
—WUd huntsman, a legendary huntsman, especially in 
Germany, who with a phantom host goes careering over 
woods, fields, and villages during the night, accompanied 
with the shouts of huntsmen and the baying of hounds.— 
Wild hyacinth, in the United States, the eastern camass, 
Cantansia (ScUla) Fraseri; in England, the bluebell, Scilla 
nutans. — 'WilA indigo. See Amorpha and Baptima.- 
Wild ipecac, ipecacuanha growing wild ; also, Tri/Meum 
per/oliaturn.—WUd Irishman, a rhamnaceons shrub, Dis- 
caria auslralis, of New Zealand and Australia, having a 
tortuous stem and opposite branches of which the outer- 
most form sharp spines, the leaves small, in fascicles, ab- 
sent in old plants.- WUd Jalap. Same as man-o/the- 
earth. — Vfili Jasmine. Hee Jatnnine and Izora.—Wili 
kale, land, lettuce, Ucorice, mangosteen, etc. See 
the nouns. — WUd lemon, the May-apple Podophyllum 
peltatum : so named from the form and color of the fruit 
— 'WUd lime. See limeM, Limonia, and tallow-nut.— "WilA 
mallogany, the white mahogany of Jamaica, Aniirrhcea 
bilurcata.— WilA mammee-apple, the West Indian tree 
liheedia tuterifolia, of the G««i/er«>.— WUd mandrake, 
the May-apple Podophyllum peltatum.— WUd mango. 
See Spondias.—'WilA mare, (a) The nightmare. Halii- 
well. IProv. Eng.) (6) A seesaw. SAat., 2 Hen. IV.. ii. 4. 
2fi8.— WUd marjoram. See marjoram, and cut under 
Origatnnn.-'Wila. masterwort. Same as herb-gerard.- 
WUd mustard, nep, oat. See the nouns.— WUd okra. 
See J/aiacAra.- WUd oUve, onion, oyster. See the 
nouns.— WUd orange, (a) See orange. (6) The West Indi- 
an euphorbiaceous tree Drypetes glauca. (c) Gsertnera ra- 
ginata, of Reunion, without ground reported as a fit substi- 
tute for coffee : often misnamed viussa-nda.-WiiA peach. 
See uild orange.— WMveaX, pigeon, plum, potato, etc. 
See the nouns.- WUd pine, (a) The Scotch pine, Pinus 
sylcestris. (6) In the West Indies, a plant of the genus 
TillanAsia, especially T. utriculata.— 'Wili pineapple. 
See pineapple, 3, penguin'^, and igtle. — Wild pink. See 
.S»(en«.— WUd prune. See Pofjwo.— WUd purslane, 
rice, sarsaparilla, etc. See the nouns.— Wild rye. See 
r.i/e and Terrell grass.— WUd sheep, the wild original of 
tile domestic sheep, or any feral species of the genus 0cm 
in a broad sense. (See 0(*i« and «Aecpl.) Various species 
inhabit mountains and high plateaus of Europe, Asia, Af- 
rica, and North America, as the aoudad, the argali, the 
bighorn, the burrhel, the mouflon, etc. See the distinctive 
names, including cuts under aoudad. argali, bighorn, and 
thian-shan.—Wiid silkworm, any silkworm other than 
the ordinary domesticated Sericaria niori. See silkirnrm. 
—WUd snowball same as rcdroot, 1.— WUd Spaniard. 
Same as spear-grass, 3.— WUd spinach, BQuUl, straw- 
berry, succory, swan. See the nouns.— WUd sweet- 
pea. see7V;)/i;o«a— WUd sweet-william. Bee Phlox. 
—WUd tamarind, tea, tobacco. See the nouns.— WUd 
tuberose. See Spiranthes.—Vil& ttUip, turkey, vanU- 
la, vine, woad, etc. See the nouns.— WUd woodbine, 
the Virgmia creeper. The yellow jasmine, (,'elseniium sem- 
perrirens, has been called Carolina it-Ud iroodbine. —WQi 
wormwood. SeeParWieniiim.- WUd yam. See yam. 
= Syn. 1 and 6. Rude, impetuous, irregular, unrestrained, 
harebrained, frantic, frenzied, crazed, fanciful, visionary, 
strange, grotesque. 
II. H. 1. A desert; an uninhabited and un- 
c-iUtivated tract or region; a waste. 
The vasty unlds 
Of wide Arabia. Shak., M. of V., ii. 7. 41. 
One Destiny our Life shall guide ; 
Nor Wild nor Deep our common Way divide. 
Prior, Henry and Emma. 
We can now tread the regions of fancy without interrup- 
tion, and expatiate in fairy wilds. Goldsmith, Criticisms. 
He would linger long 
In lonesome vales, making the u-ild his home. 
Shellfy, Alastor. 
2. i>l. Wild animals; game. 
In mareis and in mores, in myres and in wateres, 
Dompynges dyueden [dived] ; "deere God," ich sayde, 
'■ Wher hadden these milde suche witt and at what scole t " 
Piers Plowman (C), xiv. 169. 
At wlldt, crazy ; distracted. 
Trust hym never the more for the bylle that I sentyow 
by hym, but as a man at wylde, for every thyng that he 
told me is not trewe. Paslon Letters, III. 179. 
wild-t, "■ An obsolete variant of Weald, per- 
haps due to confusion with iiild^. 
A franklin in the wild of Kent. 
Shak., IHen. IV., ii. 1. «0. 
'wild-brain (wild'bran), }i. A giddy, volatile, 
lieedless person ; a harebrain. 
I nuist let fly my civil fortunes, turn wHd-brain, lay my 
wits upo' th' tenters, you rascals. 
Middleton, Mad World, i. 1. 
'Wildcat (wild'kat), «. and o. I. «. 1. A cat of 
the original feral stock from which have de- 
scended some varieties of the domestic cat ; the 
European Fclis cntiis. living in a state of nature, 
not artificially modified iu any way. Hence — 
2. One of various species of either of the genera 
