wildcat
noun
any of several North American felines of the genus Lynx.
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.
Most of the publicly available geothermal data was collected when oil-and-gas companies were wildcatting across the West between 1960 and 1980.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 21, 2026
He immigrated to California in his mid-20s and pursued several ventures, including wildcatting for oil in the hills of Coalinga, a Fresno County town.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 3, 2023
You may use the comment thread on this page to regale one another with tales of your own activities as wildcatting junior miners or to pursue other points of off-topic, freewheeling discourse.
From Slate ● Feb. 5, 2018
Go far enough back in baseball’s history – into the game’s actual disreputable, exploitive, wildcatting past, not the shelf-stable official one – and the same story repeats itself one generation after another.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 23, 2017
They cool the reactant fuel to keep it from getting too hot and wildcatting.
From Treachery in Outer Space by Louis Glanzman
