wild

noli me tangere for Ceſars I ame
and wylde for to hold though I ſeme tame

c. 1527–1542, Thomas Wyatt, “Who so list to hounte”, in Egerton MS 2711, page 7v:

Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:

Thee Shepherd, thee the Woods, and deſert caves, / With wilde Thyme and the gadding Vine o'regrown,

1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 58:

Their flowers range from the rather formal blossoming of outer London to the wilder flowering of the country, where willow-herb and broom, traveller's joy and campion, go rioting over the chalky banks of the Metropolitan Line.

1950 July, “Traveller's Joy”, in Railway Magazine, page ii (advertisement):

Plant breeding is always a numbers game.[…]The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, and individual plants are highly heterozygous and do not breed true. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better.

2013 May–June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:

Przewalski's horses are the only remaining wild horses.

Untamed; not domesticated; specifically, in an unbroken line of undomesticated animals (as opposed to feral, referring to undomesticated animals whose ancestors were domesticated).

wild honey

I was filled with wild rage when I discovered the infidelity, and punched a hole in the wall.

Forgive these wild and wandering cries,
Confusions of a wasted youth;
Forgive them where they fail in truth,
And in thy wisdom make me wise.

1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Prologue:

The fraternity was infamous for its wild parties, which frequently resulted in police involvement.

Those most rural routes will not get overhead wires. As Reeve told the seminar: "Even in my wildest dreams, I can't see a business case for electrifying the Far North Line."

2022 August 10, Philip Haigh, “Scotland switched on to electrification”, in RAIL, number 963, page 35:

The aircraft's navigational equipment should not be powered from the wild AC bus except in an emergency, as its computers can be damaged by variations in electrical frequency.

electrical engineering
electrical engineering

(electrical engineering) Of unregulated and varying frequency.

City, in contrast, were lethargic in every area of the pitch and their main contribution in the first half-hour was to keep referee Phil Dowd busy, with Micah Richards among four of their players booked early on, in his case for a wild lunge on Young.

2011 August 7, Chris Bevan, “Man City 2-3 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport:

Her mother was wild with fear when she didn't return home after the party.

After a week on the trail without a mirror, my hair was wild and dirty.

I'm not wild about the idea of a two day car trip with my nephews, but it's my only option.

The novice archer fired a wild shot and hit her opponent's target.

a wild roadstead

Exposed to the wind and sea; unsheltered.

(mathematics, of a knot) Not capable of being represented as a finite closed polygonal chain.

Did you hear? Pat won the lottery! — Wow, that's wild!

In this card game, aces are wild: they can take the place of any other card.

We define a pattern as a valid GP subtree that might contain wild characters [i.e. wildcards] in any of its nodes.

2009, Leonardo Vanneschi, Steven Gustafson, Alberto Moraglio, Genetic Programming: 12th European Conference:

Able to stand in for others, e.g. a card in games, or a text character in computer pattern matching.

a wild track; wild sound

Of an audio recording: intended to be synchronized with film or video but recorded separately.

en-adj

wild (comparative wilder, superlative wildest)

wilder (comparative)
wildest (superlative)

wild chamomile

Matricaria discoidea or Tripleurospermum inodorum

wild pink

Silene caroliniana or Dianthus sect. Fimbriatum spp.

From Middle English wild, wilde, from Old English wilde, from Proto-West Germanic *wilþī, from Proto-Germanic *wilþijaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (“hair, wool, grass, ear (of corn), forest”).
Cognates
Cognate with West Frisian wyld, Dutch wild, German wild, Danish vild, Swedish vild, Norwegian vill, Icelandic villtur.


wild

The javelin flew wild and struck a spectator, to the horror of all observing.

Let's record it wild.

(of an audio recording) Intended to be synchronized with film or video but recorded separately.


wild

After mending the lion's leg, we returned him to the wild.

(singular, with "the") The undomesticated state of a wild animal.

1730–1774, Oliver Goldsmith, Introductory to Switzerland
Thus every good his native wilds impart
Imprints the patriot passion on his heart;
And e’en those ills that round his mansion rise
Enhance the bliss his scanty funds supplies.


wild

...Chief of Detectives Robert Colangelo, who said the attacks appeared unrelated to money, race, drugs, or alcohol, said that some of the 20 youths brought in for questioning has told investigators that the crime spree was the product of a pastime called "wilding".
"It's not a term that we in the police had heard before," the chief said, noting that the police were unaware of any similar incident in the park recently. "They just said, 'We were going wilding.' In my mind at this point, it implies that they were going to raise hell."...

1989 April 22, David E. Pitt, “Jogger's Attackers Terrorized at Least 9 in 2 Hours”, in New York Times, page 1:

Now is they wildin with us / And getting rowdy with us.

1999, Busta Rhymes (Trevor Taheim Smith, Jr.), Iz They Wildin Wit Us? (song)

(intransitive, slang) To commit random acts of assault, robbery, and rape in an urban setting, especially as a gang.

They had a big influence on me. They had a big influence on Brooklyn period. I like the nonsense. [laughs] They were wildin'. Everyone in Brooklyn was liking that shit. They're wildin'. Their story in the stu, it gets deep.

2021 April 6, Shirley Ju, “The New Voice of Brooklyn is Here To 'Drench 'Em'”, in Flaunt Magazine, archived from the original on 2022-09-07:

Kinsey posted a clip of the incident alongside a caption that reads: "Damn the ER in Tulsa be wildin'."

2021 October 14, Jack Beresford, “Hospital Security Guard 'Heartbroken' After Being Fired Over Viral Video Confrontation”, in Newsweek:

The Ringer's Culture/NBA writer Wosney Lambre said it best: "I think it's a bad look for the players to be wilding on the fans like this. Fair or not, the players are held to a higher standard of decorum than the loser fans. It is what it is."

2022 April 20, A. Sherrod Blakely, “The Neverending Disappointment of Kyrie Irving”, in Bleacher Report:

(intransitive, slang) (In the form wilding or wildin') To act in a strange or unexpected way.

en-verb

wild (third-person singular simple present wilds, present participle wilding, simple past and past participle wilded)

wilds (present singular third-person)
wilding (participle present)
wilded (participle past)
wilded (past)