wildcat

Meanings

Noun

• A cat that lives in the wilderness, specifically
• A person who acts like a wildcat, a violent and easily-angered person or a sexually vigorous one.
• An offensive formation with an unbalanced line and a snap directly to the running back rather than the quarterback.
• A wheel that can be adjusted so as to revolve either with or on the shaft of a capstan.
• Short form of wildcat cartridge.
• Short form of wildcat strike, a strike undertaken without authorization from the relevant trade union.
• Short form of wildcat money, notes issued by a wildcat bank.

Adjective

• Of or concerning businesses operating outside standard or legitimate practice, especially:
• Of or concerning customized or hand-made cartridges.
• Unauthorized by the proper authorities.

Verb

• To drill for oil in an area where no oil has been found before.

Related

Similar words

• desert cat
• See bobcat
• See feral cat

Narrower meaning words

• European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris), African wildcat (F. s. lybica), Asiatic wildcat (Felis silvestris ornata (species)), Southern African wildcat (Felis silvestris cafra (species)), Chinese mountain cat (Felis silvestris bieti (species))
• Abyssinian wildcat, Arabian wildcat, Balearic wildcat, bay wildcats, bush wildcats, Caucasian wildcat, Corsica wildcat, Cretan wildcat, East African wildcat, forest wildcats, Hausa wildcat, Iraqi wildcat, Kalahari wildcat, Mid-belt wildcat, Mongolian wildcat, Rhodesian wildcat, Scottish wildcat, steppe wildcats, Syrian wildcat, Tristram's wildcat, Turkestan wildcat, Ugandan wildcat

Broader meaning words

• See cat, lynx, and wild cat

Origin

• From Middle English wyld cat, wylde cat (in the plural as wild cattes, wylde catis, wyle cattes), equivalent to wild + cat.
• Its adjectival senses were originally American and derived from the "wildcat banks" of Michigan, following its elevation to statehood in 1837. Two one easing the requirements for establishing a new bank and another occasioned by the Panic of 1837 that removed the need for payment in led to the creation and collapse of around 50 banks within two years. The term is apocryphally derived from a wildcat supposedly featured on the currency printed by one of these banks, but more probably derived from the remote locations "where the wildcats roamed" chosen by these banks to avoid oversight and minimize redemption of notes.