wildcatter

noun wild·cat·ter \ ˈwī(-ə)l(d)-ˌka-tər \

|Updated on: 20 May 2018

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of wildcatter

1 : one that drills wells in the hope of finding oil in territory not known to be an oil field

2 : one that promotes unsafe and unreliable enterprises; especially : one that sells stocks in such enterprises

3 : one that designs, builds, or fires wildcat cartridges and firearms

4 : a worker who goes out on a wildcat strike

wildcatter was our Word of the Day on 08/10/2010. Hear the podcast!

Recent Examples of wildcatter from the Web

Yet amid this Boy Scout good behaviour, the wildcatter spirit remains—all couched in typical industry hyperbole.

— The Economist, "American shale-oil producers are on a roll," 10 May 2018
Don Graham, a Texas writer and professor, digs into Giant like a wildcatter drilling for oil.

— gary m. kramer, Philly.com, "'Giant': A giant book about a giant film," 4 May 2018
The joke wore off in the 2000s when wildcatters and independent oil producers began to crack the hard-rock code.

— kevin crowley, Bloomberg.com, "Was This Oil Giant Smart or Just Lucky?," 7 Mar. 2018
Oilmen, wildcatters and particularly refiners are reaping billions in gains from President Donald Trump's tax overhaul, helping boost the staying power of old-style energy even as the world searches for cleaner fuels.

— kevin crowley, david wethe and alex nussbaum, Houston Chronicle, "Billions from Trump tax cut supercharges fossil fuels," 2 Feb. 2018
Carriage rides Hawking had come to Texas because of oil money, particularly that of a Houston wildcatter named George Mitchell, who launched the present-day fracking boom.

— eric berger, Ars Technica, "That one time Stephen Hawking went for a carriage ride in Texas," 19 Mar. 2018
Too high, and the wildcatters in Texas would drill for fresh supply.

— The Economist, "Crude thinkingWhy the oil price is so high," 18 Jan. 2018
The strategy isn’t as risky as staking wildcatters or borrowing heavily to buy entire oil companies, but profits are usually lower.

— ryan dezember, WSJ, "From $2 Billion to Zero: A Private-Equity Fund Goes Bust in the Oil Patch," 16 July 2017
Perry Richardson Bass was the nephew of Sid Richardson, a Texas wildcatter who earned a fortune in oil during the Depression and left $11 million to his nephew in 1959.

— kelly crow, WSJ, "Matisse, van Gogh, Rothko Head to Auction," 21 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'wildcatter.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Messing with a wildcat, such as a lynx, can be a pretty risky undertaking, but ferocious felines played only an indirect role in the development of the word wildcatter. That term has been used in English since the late 19th century, along with the verb "wildcat," which refers to the risky practice of drilling experimental oil wells in territory not known to produce oil. English-speakers associated "wildcat" with risk-taking ventures after a number of U.S. banks fraudulently issued banknotes with little or no capital to back them up. Supposedly, the banknotes issued by one particular bank bore the image of a panther or, as it was known locally, a "wildcat," and it was those risky notes that led to the financial risk-taking senses of "wildcat" and "wildcatter."