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wild (wīld)
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adj. wild·er, wild·est
1. Occurring, growing, or living in a natural state; not domesticated, cultivated, or tamed: wild geese; edible wild plants.
2. Not inhabited or farmed: remote, wild country.
3. Uncivilized or barbarous.
4.
a. Lacking supervision or restraint: wild children living in the street.
b. Disorderly; unruly: a wild scene in the school cafeteria.
c. Characterized by a lack of moral restraint; dissolute or licentious: recalled his wild youth with remorse.
5. Lacking regular order or arrangement; disarranged: wild locks of long hair.
6. Full of, marked by, or suggestive of strong, uncontrolled emotion: wild with jealousy; a wild look in his eye; a wild rage.
7. Extravagant; fantastic: a wild idea.
8. Furiously disturbed or turbulent; stormy: wild weather.
9. Risky; imprudent: wild financial schemes.
10.
a. Impatiently eager: wild to get away for the weekend.
b. Informal Highly enthusiastic: just wild about the new music.
11. Based on little or no evidence or probability; unfounded: wild accusations; a wild guess.
12. Deviating greatly from an intended course; erratic: a wild bullet.
13. Games Having an equivalence or value determined by the cardholder's choice: playing poker with deuces wild.
adv.
In a wild manner: growing wild; roaming wild.
n.
1. A natural or undomesticated state: returned the zoo animals to the wild; plants that grow abundantly in the wild.
2. often wilds A region that is mostly uninhabited or uncultivated: the wilds of the northern steppes.
intr.v. wild·ed, wild·ing, wilds
To go about in a group threatening, robbing, or attacking others.
[Middle English wilde, from Old English.]
wildly adv.
wildness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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