Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A plant that grows wild or has escaped from cultivation, especially a wild apple tree or its fruit.
- n. A wild animal.
- n. Slang The act or practice of going about in a group threatening, robbing, or attacking others.
- adj. Growing wild; not cultivated.
- adj. Undomesticated.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A plant that is wild or that grows without cultivation; specifically, a wild crab-apple tree; also, the fruit of such a plant.
- Wild; not cultivated or domesticated.
Wiktionary
- n. A wild apple or apple-tree.
- n. Any plant that grows wild, a wildflower.
- v. present participle of wild.
- adj. poetic Not tame or cultivated; wild.
- n. usually in the plural, philately Any British stamp with the image of Queen Elizabeth II, based on a portrait by Dorothy Wilding.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) A wild or uncultivated plant; especially, a wild apple tree or crab apple; also, the fruit of such a plant.
- adj. Poetic Not tame, domesticated, or cultivated; wild.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a wild uncultivated plant (especially a wild apple or crabapple tree)
- n. an outrageous rampage usually involving sexual attacks by men on women
Etymologies
- From Dorothy Wilding (Wiktionary)
- From wild. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The term wilding properly pronounced “whylin” is an early hiphop term that was in use way before the police used it, for just someone acting out of control.”
“But you do ask: Why not use the term wilding to talk about what the rape survivor said happened at Duke.”
“Why not use the term wilding to talk about what the rape survivor said happened at Duke.”
“ The term wilding was used to describe the attack of a White woman in Central Park in the late 1980s.”
“I wondered if popular media outlets will use the term wilding, or will they come up with some special code word that referred to groups of young White men who attack women especially Black women.”
“I am not advocating for the use of the term wilding to describe gang rapes.”
“No wonder old Jocelyn had called her "wilding" -- she was indeed a "wilding" or weed, -- growing up unwanted in the garden of the world, destined to be pulled out of the soil where she had nourished and thrown contemptuously aside.”
“It's a (relatively) new phenomenon called "wilding" -- marauding in bands of inner city”
“God is not the sword wilding judgementor that religon makes him out to be.”
“wilding" -- a loaded term that strikes fear into New Yorkers who remember the bad old days when packs of marauding youths roamed the streets.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘wilding’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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phrontistery-w
from phrontistery.info
wack, wadmal, waftage, wafture, wagonette, wagtail, wainage, wainscot, wair, waits, wakerife, waldflute and 282 more...
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Big words I stumbled across
panglossian, Panglossian, thrall, shivaree, begs the question, neologism, wilding, opsimath, sibilant, gloaming, trilling, diurnal
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logophile
viresce, infinitum, transient, nonpareil, anon, therianthropy, lycomania, halcyon, unblinkered, seraphim, nephilim, moros and 160 more...
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Wolfy's Words
wolfy, fauna, evergreen, fuzzy, smorgasborg, architecture, bedlam, endow, exceptional, extrinsic, free, excalibur and 70 more...
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perhapsolutely's Words
polyradiculoneuro..., abulia, abubble, abscission, abaft, zareba, abatis, abigail, abiogenesis, ablate, ablaut, abo and 1705 more...
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Wade's Words
Tweets
Looking for tweets for wilding.
bilby square brackets: rumspringa Oct 22, 2011
waderoush Wow, I hadn't heard that one. Sounds like wilding and rumspringa are exact synonyms.
How did you link to the definition page in your comment? Oct 22, 2011
sionnach is this like rumspringa? Oct 22, 2011
waderoush There's another definition not reflected in Wordnik's sources. Amish and Mennonite groups use "wilding" to refer to a period when a (usually) young member leaves the community to experience outside culture. The young person may or may not return to the community. Jane Hirshfield, in "The Heart of Haiku," defines it as "a period of sampling everything the sensual world has to offer" and suggests that the poet Basho went through a wilding of sorts in his mid-20s. Oct 22, 2011