wildcat

CEFRB2

/ˈwaɪldˌkæt/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A small wild cat or an unofficial risky project.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A cat that lives in the wilderness, specifically:

Examples

  • Have you ever seen a wildcat in Algeria?

  • These days, the wildcat is a protected species in Algeria.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
3
Synonyms
3

Also pronounced

  • [ˈwaɪ.əlʔˌkæt]

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Felis silvestris, a common small Old World wild cat somewhat larger than a house cat.

  2. Any feral cat.

  3. A bobcat (Lynx rufus) or other similar New World species of lynx.

More examples

In context

  • 2003 April 24, CNN Upon checking it out, we found a total of 13 newborn wildcats: nine newborn tigers and two newborn leopards.

  • 2002 September 26, The Young and the Restless Anyone who's man enough to have landed a wildcat like you had to be quite a guy.

  • 2003 June 15, CNN Jewish settlers have also been active putting up five new wildcat outposts on hilltops in the West Bank to try to thwart their Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

A blank is a small, fierce wild animal that lives in forests and hunts at night.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English wyld cat, wylde cat (in the plural as wild cattes, wylde catis, wyle cattes), equivalent to wild + cat. Cognate with Middle Low German wiltkatte, German Wildkatze, Swedish vildkatt. Its adjectival senses were originally American and derived from the "wildcat banks" of Michigan, following its elevation to statehood in 1837. Two laws—one easing the requirements for establishing a new bank and another occasioned by the Panic of 1837 that removed the need for payment in specie—led to the creation and collapse of around 50 banks within two years. The term is apocryphally derived from a wildcat supposedly featured on the currency printed by one of these banks, but more probabl...