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Glite Dictionary
✊ Unauthorized strike ⛽ Risky oil drilling
wildcatting

wildcatting

9.4
Drilling for oil or gas in places not known to have them
  • noun
  • /ˈwaɪldˌkætɪŋ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : exploración salvaje
  • During the oil boom, numerous entrepreneurs turned to wildcatting as a way to strike it rich.

Examples

  • The risks involved in wildcatting often deter investors from drilling in unproven territories.

  • - Off to Arizona for a little wildcatting.

    Boom Town (1940)

  • Well, wildcatting it is.

    Boom Town (1940)

  • Many companies engage in wildcatting in hopes of discovering untapped oil reserves in less explored regions.

Synonyms

prospection
vswildcatting
  • Specialized
8.4

To search an area to find minerals or oil

involves drilling in unproven sites rather than just surveying

How Exploratory

wildcatting
  • Specialized
9.4
oil production
  • Specialized
41 3.4

Surface Forms

wildcatting singular
wildcattings plural

Morphology

wildcatting = wildcat (opaque) = wild + cat + ing

The noun is a regular -ing nominalization of the verb wildcat, but the drilling sense is a specialized industry term.

Etymology

Wildcatting comes from early oil drillers called wildcatters who worked in places where nobody knew if oil was there, so the work was very 'risky'. That's why wildcatting means drilling for oil in unproven areas.