wildcat

from 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
    
from 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]
    
from U.S. Gazetteer (1990)
Wildcat, WV
  Zip code(s): 26376
    
from 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

    

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