wild-and-woolly

American  

[wahyld-n-wool-ee] / ˈwaɪld nˈwʊl i /

adjective

1. unrestrained; lawless.

   a wild-and-woolly frontier town.

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Etymology

Origin of wild-and-woolly

First recorded in 1885–90; perhaps originally referring to range-bred cattle

Example Sentences

“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