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• wilding
  wilding

  noun

  a wild apple tree.
• Wilding
  Wilding

  noun

  ( Frederick ) Anthony . 1883–1915, New Zealand tennis player; Wimbledon singles champion (1910–1913) and doubles champion (1907–08, 1910, 1913)

wilding

¹ American  

[wahyl-ding] / ˈwaɪl dɪŋ /

noun

1. a wild apple tree.

2. its fruit.

3. any plant that grows wild.

4. a plant, originally cultivated, that now grows wild; an escape.

5. a wild animal.

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adjective

1. not cultivated or domesticated; wild.

wilding ² American  

noun

1. the practice by a group of youths of going on a random spree of violent criminal activity.

2. an instance of this.

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adjective

1. of or relating to such criminal activity.

   wilding teens;

   a wilding attack.

wilding ¹ British  

/ ˈwaɪldɪŋ /

noun

1. an uncultivated plant, esp the crab apple, or a cultivated plant that has become wild

2. a wild animal

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Wilding ² British  

/ ˈwaɪldɪŋ /

noun

1. ( Frederick ) Anthony . 1883–1915, New Zealand tennis player; Wimbledon singles champion (1910–1913) and doubles champion (1907–08, 1910, 1913)

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Etymology

Origin of wilding¹

First recorded in 1520–30; wild + -ing ³

Origin of wilding²

First recorded in 1985–90; wild + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wilding Wilding

"Hollywood is on time out. I'm just going to put that right to the camera. Hollywood is wilding right now."

From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2024

Like a pack of wilding drunks, they’re destroying habitats, contaminating water with their wallowing and feces, eroding topsoil and generally making a mess of things.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 10, 2023

For the Bene Gesserit, a religious order of women who influence history from the shadows, the color was a chorus of wilding female voices.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2022

Every night on Clubhouse, people are just wilding.

From The Verge ● Feb. 1, 2022

They were still wilding and messing with people and putting out squad tracts.

From "145th Street: Short Stories" by Walter Dean Myers

The study was led by Professor John Wilding from the University of Liverpool in the UK along with fellow researchers.

From Science Daily ● May 19, 2026

As Pimco’s Tiffany Wilding said in a Thursday client note, “something unusual” has been going on with U.S. inflation data since late last year — beyond the oil shock from the Iran war.

From MarketWatch ● May 7, 2026

Tariff-related costs continue “to delay progress back to the central bank’s target” of 2% inflation, Pimco economist Tiffany Wilding wrote to clients on Thursday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026

Pimco has shaved off 0.3 to 0.4 percentage point its forecast, assuming the conflict winds down quickly, managing director Tiffany Wilding said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026

Alas, there are still plenty of people who think, with Nick Wilding, that ‘social constructivism does not go nearly far enough.’

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton