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wildcat bank

American

noun

a bank that issued notes without adequate security in the period before the establishment of the national banking system in 1864.

An Americanism dating back to 1830–40

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wildcat bank

Well, I can't go back to him and resume, no more'n a wildcat bank.

From Gideon's Band A Tale of the Mississippi by Cable, George Washington

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023