[syn: unauthorized, unauthorised, wildcat]
3. (of a mine or oil well) drilled speculatively in an area not known to be productive;
- Example: "drilling there would be strictly a wildcat operation"
- Example: "a wildcat mine"
- Example: "wildcat drilling"
- Example: "wildcat wells"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
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]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
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,
wildcat]
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, wildcat]
2: a cruelly rapacious person [syn: beast, wolf, savage,
brute, wildcat]
3: any small or medium-sized cat resembling the domestic cat and
living in the wild
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
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