Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A plant, especially a seedling, that is growing wild or has escaped from cultivation.
- noun The act or practice of going about in a group threatening, robbing, or attacking others.
- adjective Growing wild; not cultivated.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun 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.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Bot.) A wild or uncultivated plant; especially, a wild apple tree or crab apple; also, the fruit of such a plant.
- adjective Poetic Not tame, domesticated, or cultivated; wild.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A wild
apple or apple-tree. - noun Any
plant thatgrows wild , awildflower . - verb Present participle of
wild . - adjective poetic Not
tame orcultivated ;wild . - noun usually in the plural, philately Any British stamp with the
image of Queen Elizabeth II, based on aportrait by Dorothy Wilding.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a wild uncultivated plant (especially a wild apple or crabapple tree)
- noun an outrageous rampage usually involving sexual attacks by men on women
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I am not advocating for the use of the term wilding to describe gang rapes.
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The term wilding was used to describe the attack of a White woman in Central Park in the late 1980s.
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The term wilding was used to describe the attack of a White woman in Central Park in the late 1980s.
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Why not use the term wilding to talk about what the rape survivor said happened at Duke.
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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.
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Why not use the term wilding to talk about what the rape survivor said happened at Duke.
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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.
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But you do ask: Why not use the term wilding to talk about what the rape survivor said happened at Duke.
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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.
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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.
Innocent : her fancy and his fact Marie Corelli 1889
waderoush commented on the word wilding
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.
October 22, 2011
sionnach commented on the word wilding
is this like rumspringa?
October 22, 2011
waderoush commented on the word wilding
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?
October 22, 2011
bilby commented on the word wilding
square brackets: rumspringa
October 23, 2011