Wild West
17
5.3
- noun
- /waɪld wɛst/
- US
:
lejano oeste
- The stories of outlaws and lawmen depict the Wild West as a time of adventure and danger.
- Wild West shows
- Cody's Wild West
I think that those Wild West days of research have disappeared.
- I think that those Wild West days of research have disappeared.
- And it was just this wild, wild, Wild West out there.
- I think garage music was a bit a bit like the Wild West, I think.
- America is the, it's, we're the Wild West of countries.
- I mean that this really becomes this sort of crazy Wild West scenario.
- Anyway, So Walmart equals the Wild West.
- Right now it is an unregulated wild, Wild West.
- It was just a couple Americans and in the middle of the Wild West.
- I'm sure they'll find a way, but at the moment it's the Wild West out there.
- And China is just like complete Wild West.
Examples
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Wasserman also knew that the Wild West was about to be tamed.
Blog text (14) -
The bigwigs are flying them to Texas to see some kind of Wild West theme park out there.
Fiction book (1998) -
It's a little bit like the Wild West out there right now.
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And it's just the Wild West, right?
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Witness the Wild West as it really was.
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Carry a gun in the Wild West.
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Were there good things about the Wild West approach back then?
Blog text (25) -
Both of us were out in the Wild West to get started on our new careers.
Fiction book (2000) -
Yes, OK, so it definitely has gotten way more casual and it definitely is the Wild West right now.
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Of course, the real Wild West wasn't nearly as wild as we remember it.
Blog text (26)
Synonyms
2
6.5
The western United States in the 1700s and 1800s where settlers explored and lived
How Lawless
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning of 'Wild West' follows directly from combining 'wild' (untamed, lawless) with 'West' (the western region), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer an untamed or lawless western area and by extension the frontier period. This compositional logic is common across languages and does not require idiomatic knowledge, making the expression immediately comprehensible from its parts.
Etymology
Wild West comes from the real American West in the 1800s, when new towns grew fast and often had little law or order. Because life there was so wild and it happened in the west, people now use Wild West to mean 'a place or time with little law and lots of danger'.