wild-and-woolly
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of wild-and-woolly
First recorded in 1885–90; perhaps originally referring to range-bred cattle
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Babylon” doesn’t just long for the movie palaces of old, or even the wild-and-woolly world of silent film and the attendant bacchanalia the movie so riotously depicts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 9, 2023
She was raised in the wild-and-woolly politics of Arkansas, the only daughter of former governor Mike Huckabee, and grew up to work on his two unsuccessful presidential campaigns.
From Washington Post ● May 4, 2018
They actually had money, which made them far more credible than John Spano, who had used guile and bank fraud in his wild-and-woolly attempt to buy the Islanders a few years earlier.
From New York Times ● Aug. 12, 2014
The Giants had their usual wild-and-woolly trip to victory over the Cowboys, but this is pretty much routine now, as Ohm Youngmisuk writes on ESPN.com.
From New York Times ● Oct. 29, 2012
Used to be a freight brakeman or something out in the wild-and-woolly.
From Success A Novel by Adams, Samuel Hopkins
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
