(Also with hyphen, or, esp. in early use, as one word.) Forms: see WILD a. and CAT sb.1; also β. (Sc.) 6 wilkatt, 8 wilcat, wil’-cat, 9 wull-cat. [Cf. MLG. wildkatte, MHG. wilde katze (G. wildkatze), Sw. vildkatt, Da. -kat.]
1. The European wild species of cat, Felis catus (see CAT sb.1 1 c); also applied to other wild animals of the cat tribe, esp. in U.S. to species of lynx. † Also pl., the skins of these used as fur.
1418. E. E. Wills (1882), 37. A gowne of gray russet furred wit Ionetis and wylde Catis.
14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 591/26. Laero, -ronis, est quoddam animal pilosum ut cuniculus secundum alios, a wylde cat.
c. 1480. Henryson, Wolf & Wether, viii. Nouther wolf, wyld-cat, nor ȝit tod.
1566. Act 8 Eliz., c. 15 § 2. For the Heade of everie Fitchewe Polcatte or Wilde Catte, one peny.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., II. v. 48. He sleepes by day More then the wilde-cat.
1682. T. A., Carolina, 20. The Tyger, Wolf, and wild Cat.
1805. Scott, Lett., in Lockhart (1837), II. ii. 51. We have a curious breed of wild-cats who have eaten all Charlotte’s chickens.
1843. Macaulay, Horatius, xlv. Then, like a wild cat mad with wounds, Sprang right at Astur’s face.
1884. Marcus Clarke Mem. Vol., 127. How many nights … have I listened to the skirr of the wild cats.
1904. Daily Chron., 31 March, 7/3. A terrible struggle between a man and a monstrous wildcat.
β. 1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 7. To hunte the hair and the fox,… the Wolfe, or the Wilkatt.
c. 1730. Ramsay, Fables, XIX. 44. The tyger, bair, and ev’ry powerfu’ fur, Down to the wilcat and the snarling cur.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., x. I never ask what brings the Laird of Dumbiedikes glowering here like a wull-cat … day after day.
1887. P. M’Neill, Blawearie, 153. Still haudin’ on till its tail wi’ the determination of a wull-cat.
2. fig. Applied to a savage, ill-tempered or spiteful person, esp. a woman: cf. CAT sb.1 2.
† To run wild-cat (quot a. 1652): to ‘run mad,’ become demented: cf. WILD a. 12, and the attrib. use in 4 b below.
1573–80. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 168. Where window is open, cat maketh a fray, Yet wilde cat with two legs is worse by my fay.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. ii. 197. But will you woo this Wilde-cat?
1612. N. Field, Woman is a Weathercock, I. ii. Like a Wilde-Cat of Pickt-hatch.
a. 1652. Brome, Damoiselle, I. i. The care of Children’s such a startle-braine, That had I more then one, I should run Wild-cat.
1771. Smollett, Humphry Cl., 17 April (1815), 14. That wild-cat my sister Tabby.
1894. Crockett, Raiders, xiii. ‘Come back to your post, ye wull cat,’ I shouted.
3. fig. a. One who forms a rash project, or engages in a risky or unsafe enterprise. b. An unsound business undertaking, as a ‘wild-cat bank’ (see 4 b); also, a note, or notes collectively, of a ‘wild-cat bank.’ (Orig. and chiefly U.S. colloq.)
1812. Columbian Centinel, 6 June, 2/5. Some of the Wild-cats of Congress.
1839. Mrs. Kirkland, New Home, xxxi. 204. The celebrated term ‘Wild Cat,’ justified fully by the course of these cunning and stealthy bloodsuckers.
1883. F. M. Crawford, Dr. Claudius, x. Complacent holders of preferred, and scatter-brained speculators in wild-cat.
1896. Nation (N. Y.), 3 Dec., 417/2. Whether this feature of our banking system can be amended without giving the field to wildcats.
1902. Westm. Gaz., 7 Aug., 9/1. The market has been crowded with ‘wild cats.’
4. attrib. (usually with hyphen). a. lit. in sense 1: Of a wild cat.
1624. Capt. J. Smith, Virginia, I. 17. Some … wilde Catte skinnes.
1863. W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, ix. 421. Jackal and wild-cat skins.
b. fig. Applied to banks in the western United States which, before the passing of the National Bank Act of 1863, fraudulently issued notes with little or no capital, or to their notes or transactions; hence extended to unsound or risky business enterprises generally; also to illicit businesses or their products (e.g., wild-cat whisky); and more widely to reckless, rash or extravagant undertakings, statements, etc. (cf. WILD a. 13). colloq.
This application is said to have arisen from the fact that the notes of a bank in Michigan bore the device of a panther, locally known by the name ‘wild cat.’
1838. The Jeffersonian (Albany), 14 April, 72/3. About 400 Irishmen working on the canal, took offence at being paid in ‘Wild Cat’ money, instead of Illinois.
1839. Mrs. Kirkland, New Home, xxxi. 205. Once in the grasp of a ‘wild cat bank,’ his struggles were unavailing.
a. 1854. W. North, Slave of Lamp, 38 (Bartlett). Much bogus coin and wild-cat-cum-red-dog bills are in circulation.
1881. T. Hughes, Rugby, Tennessee, II. v. 64. They are sadly weak wehn wild-cat whisky—or ‘moonshine’ as the favourite illicit beverage of the mountains is called—crosses their path.
1883. Century Mag., July, 331/2. When he begins to put down a wild-cat well, he usually leases all the land in the vicinity.
1890. Lieut. Troup, in Daily News, 12 Nov., 6/2. In no way did I undertake to uphold Major Barttelot in any wild-cat expedition.
Hence Wild-catter, Wild-catting, one who engages, the action of engaging, in a ‘wild-cat’ business or enterprise: see 4 b above. U.S. colloq.
1883. E. V. Smalley, in Century Mag., July, 327/2. The ‘wild-catters,’ as the prospectors are called who take the risks of sinking wells in unknown territory. Ibid., 331/1. ‘Wild-catting’ is the name applied to the venturesome business of drilling [oil] wells on territory not known to contain oil.
1893. Nation (N. Y.), 2 Feb., 76/3. The President-elect will not sign any such bill without absolute assurance against the kind of wild-catting and red-dogging that was rife before the war.
