wild
- adverb
- /waɪld/
- During the concert, the audience danced wildly to the upbeat music.
Examples
-
This crowd's going wild loving the wide-open action in this quarterfinal game.
-
More cheers—the crowd was going wild over the aerial demonstration.
Fiction book (1998) -
The fans cheered wildly as the team scored the winning goal.
-
The children ran wild in the playground, laughing and playing without a care.
Synonyms
In a way that has no rules or limits
In a way that is not controlled and shows strong feeling
In a violent, wild way that is out of control
Spreading quickly and without control
In a wild and uncontrolled way that often causes damage
In a wild, untamed way like an animal
In a way that shows strong feeling and no holding back
Antonyms
Idioms
- Informal
A saying that you should not expect a wild person or thing to behave calmly
Compounds
- US
A time in the western United States when settlers moved in and there were few laws
- Jargon
In baseball, a pitch the catcher cannot catch that lets a base runner advance
- Offensive
A woman who does not follow normal social rules and is often avoided by others
- Archaic
A live show with cowboys riding horses, shooting, and showing life in the old West
A water bird like a mallard that lives in lakes and rivers and is not kept by people
A strong-smelling plant with broad leaves that grows in woods and people use in cooking
A traveling American show from the 1880s that showed horse riding, shooting and frontier life
A plant with a thick underground root used in traditional medicine for joint pain or liver problems
A large wild animal like a donkey that lives on dry plains in Asia and northeast Africa
A tall rough grass from North America with spiky flower heads that grows in open grassland
- South African
A wild donkey from dry northeastern Africa that is the ancestor of the domestic donkey
- Specialized
A large wild animal like a big cow that lives in Asian forests and grasslands
A shrub that grows in southern Arizona and Mexico and has seed pods with soft fibers like cotton
A place where injured wild animals get care and recover safely
- US
A plant that grows every year in dry parts of southwestern US and Mexico and has small tubers like potatoes
A tropical plant that grows along the ground or climbs and has a large root people eat
- US
A climbing plant of dry areas that grows small hard green fruits people cannot eat
A low bog bush from northern Europe and Asia with leaves that smell strong and pleasant, not the cooking herb
A North American wild plant with sweet-smelling roots used for drinks and medicine
- UK
A wild Mediterranean grass that is the original form of the grain grown for food
- US
A North American plant with bright yellow flowers whose leaves people use as medicine
A plant with bright yellow and orange flowers that grows wild and can be a weed
A European tree with lobed leaves and small brown spotted fruits you can eat
- US
A wild plant from South America and Mexico with leaves used for smoking and not usually grown for sale
How Wild
Surface Forms
Etymology
Wild comes from an old word meaning 'untamed', so used as an adverb it means 'in an uncontrolled way'—for example, plants grow wild or the horses ran wild.