wild

adjectiveadverbnounverbnouncommon in dialogue

//ˈwaɪ̯ld//
/[ˈwaɪ̯ld]/
//ˈwaːld//
/[ˈwaːld]/

Untamed; not domesticated. Especially, being of the wild type: being of an unbroken ancestral line of undomesticated animals, as opposed to being feral, being an undomesticated animal whose ancestors were domesticated.

adjective

1
Untamed; not domesticated. Especially, being of the wild type: being of an unbroken ancestral line of undomesticated animals, as opposed to being feral, being an undomesticated animal whose ancestors were domesticated.
Near-synonym: indigenous
Przewalski's horses are the only remaining wild horses, although there are many feral horses throughout the world.
In this region, the wild boars can be dangerous, but (perhaps counterintuitively) the feral hogs can be even worse.
noli me tangere for Ceſars I ame and wylde for to hold though I ſeme tame
2
Untamed; not domesticated. Being in the wild, by any pathway (whether by being of the wild type, by being feral since birth, or by being feral after escape from domesticated life).
3
From or relating to wild creatures.
wild honey
4
Unrestrained or uninhibited.
I was filled with wild rage when I discovered the infidelity, and punched a hole in the wall.
Forgive these wild and wandering cries, ⁠Confusions of a wasted youth; ⁠Forgive them where they fail in truth, And in thy wisdom make me wise.
5
Raucous, unruly, or licentious.
The fraternity was infamous for its wild parties, which frequently resulted in police involvement.
Those most rural routes will not get overhead wires. As Reeve told the seminar: "Even in my wildest dreams, I can't see a business case for electrifying the Far North Line."
6
Of unregulated and varying frequency.
The aircraft's navigational equipment should not be powered from the wild AC bus except in an emergency, as its computers can be damaged by variations in electrical frequency.
7
Visibly and overtly anxious; frantic.
Her mother was wild with fear when she didn't return home after the party.
City, in contrast, were lethargic in every area of the pitch and their main contribution in the first half-hour was to keep referee Phil Dowd busy, with Micah Richards among four of their players booked early on, in his case for a wild lunge on Young.
8
Furious; very angry.
9
Disheveled, tangled, or untidy.
After a week on the trail without a mirror, my hair was wild and dirty.
10
Enthusiastic.
I'm not wild about the idea of a two day car trip with my nephews, but it's my only option.
11
Very inaccurate; far off the mark.
The novice archer fired a wild shot and hit her opponent's target.
12
Exposed to the wind and sea; unsheltered.
a wild roadstead
13
Hard to steer.
14
Not capable of being represented as a finite closed polygonal chain.
15
slangAmazing, awesome, unbelievable.
Did you hear? Pat won the lottery! — Wow, that's wild!
16
slangVery unexpected; wildly surprising; crazy, diabolical.
17
Able to stand in for others, e.g. a card in games, or a text character in computer pattern matching.
In this card game, aces are wild: they can take the place of any other card.
We define a pattern as a valid GP subtree that might contain wild characters [i.e. wildcards] in any of its nodes.
18
Of an audio recording: intended to be synchronized with film or video but recorded separately.
a wild track; wild sound

Etymology

From Middle English weilde, wield, wielde, wijlde, wild, wilde, wyld, wylde, wyled, wyyld, from Old English wilde, from Proto-West Germanic *wilþī, from Proto-Germanic *wilþijaz (“wild”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (“hair; wool”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian wil (“wild”), Saterland Frisian wíeld, wüüld (“wild”), West Frisian wyld (“wild”), Bavarian wüd (“wild”), Central Franconian weld (“wild”), Cimbrian bill (“crazy, mad; wild; stupid”), Dutch, German, and Low German wild (“wild”), Luxembourgish wëll (“wild; savage”), Vilamovian wyłd (“wild”), Yiddish ווילד (vild, “wild; savage”), Danish and Swedish vild (“wild”), Faroese villur (“wild”), Icelandic villtur (“wild; lost; barbaric, savage; uncultivated; untamed”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk vill (“wild”), vill (“lost”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌻𐌸𐌴𐌹𐍃 (wilþeis, “wild”); also Cornish gwlan (“wool”), Irish and Scottish Gaelic olann (“wool”), Manx ollan (“wool”), Welsh gwlân (“wool”), Latin vellus (“fleece, wool”), villus (“hair, shaggy hair”), Ancient Greek λάχνη (lákhnē, “woolly hair; thin hair; soft nap or pile on cloth; quills hedgehog; leafage”), Lithuanian valai (“hair of the horse tail”), Belarusian во́лас (vólas, “single hair”), Czech and Slovak vlas (“single hair”), Macedonian влас (vlas, “fluff; thread (of hair)”), Polish włos (“single hair”), Russian and Ukrainian во́лос (vólos, “single hair”), Serbo-Croatian вла̑с, vlȃs (“single hair”), Slovene las (“hair on top of head; nap, pile”), Armenian գեղմ (geġm, “fleece, wool”), Central Kurdish پرچ (pirç, “fax, headhair”), Northern Kurdish hirî (“wool”), Persian گرس (gors, “curl, ringlet; braid”), Hittite 𒋠𒀸 (SÍG-aš, “wool”), Tocharian A urṇ (“the circles of white hair between the brows of the Buddha or other deity”), Tocharian B *ūrṇ (“the circles of white hair between the brows of the Buddha or other deity”), Sanskrit वल्श (valśa, “branch, shoot, twig”).

adverb

1
Inaccurately; not on target.
The javelin flew wild and struck a spectator, to the horror of all observing.
2
Intended to be synchronized with film or video but recorded separately.
Let's record it wild.

noun

1
The undomesticated state of a wild animal.
After mending the lion's leg, we returned him to the wild.
2
A wilderness.
1730–1774, Oliver Goldsmith, Introductory to Switzerland Thus every good his native wilds impart Imprints the patriot passion on his heart; And e’en those ills that round his mansion rise Enhance the bliss his scanty funds supplies.
3
Something that is able to stand in for others, such as a particular playing card in a game.

verb

1
slangTo commit random acts of assault, robbery, and rape in an urban setting, especially as a gang.
Now is they wildin with us / And getting rowdy with us.
2
slang(In the form wilding or wildin') To act in a strange or unexpected way.
They had a big influence on me. They had a big influence on Brooklyn period. I like the nonsense. [laughs] They were wildin'. Everyone in Brooklyn was liking that shit. They're wildin'. Their story in the stu, it gets deep.
Kinsey posted a clip of the incident alongside a caption that reads: "Damn the ER in Tulsa be wildin'."
The Ringer's Culture/NBA writer Wosney Lambre said it best: "I think it's a bad look for the players to be wilding on the fans like this. Fair or not, the players are held to a higher standard of decorum than the loser fans. It is what it is."

noun

1
Variant of wealdAlternative form of weald.

Forms

plural: wilds
comparative: wilder
superlative: wildest
past tense: wilded
past participle: wilded
present participle: wilding
third person singular: wilds

Wil · A male given name, variant of Will.Wilbur · A surname originating as a matronymic.Wilcox · A surname originating as a patronymic.

wild · Untamed; not domesticated. Especially, being of the wild type: being of an unbroken ancestral line of undomesticated animals, as opposed to being…

Wild · A surname from Middle English originally referring to a wild…Wilde · A surname from Middle English.wilder · To bewilder, perplex

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.