wildcat
pronunciation
How to pronounce wildcat in British English:
UK [ˈwaɪldkæt]
How to pronounce wildcat in American English:
US [ˈwaɪldˌkæt]
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- Noun:
- an exploratory oil well drilled in land not known to be an oil field
- a cruelly rapacious person
- any small or medium-sized cat resembling the domestic cat and living in the wild
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- Adjective:
- outside the bounds of legitimate or ethical business practices
- without official authorization
- (of a mine or oil well) drilled speculatively in an area not known to be productive
Word Origin
- wildcat (n.)
- undomesticated cat, early 14c. (late 12c. as a surname), from wild (adj.) + cat (n.). Meaning "savage woman" is recorded from 1570s; sense of "one who forms rash projects" is attested from 1812. The adjective in the financial speculative sense is first recorded 1838, American English.
Example
- 1. Unsurprisingly , the wildcat era was fertile ground for fraud .
- 2. Around 12000 miners at another gold mine have downed tools in a wildcat strike , demanding more pay .
- 3. The structures , too , are tamer than the type of wildcat notes that were popular before the crisis .
- 4. Most countries in europe lack both the small wildcat exploration firms that spearheaded shale-gas exploitation in america , and the myriad competing oilfield-services firms that support them , thus driving down costs .
- 5. Workers at the marikana mine in south africa , which is owned by lonmin , a big platinum company , signed a deal that ended a six-week wildcat strike that has left 45 people dead .