woods colt, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

woods colt n.

[SAmE, woods colt, a horse of unknown paternity; such a colt is conceived and/or reared in the woods, rather than in a stable]

(US) an illegitimate child.

1895		DN I 395: woods colt: foundling. Winchester, Ky.
1932		J. Peterkin Bright Skin 40: Man Jay is a woods colt.
1949		Sat. Eve. Post 16 Apr. 146/4: He raved, swore, called the boy a wood’s colt and his instrument a thump keg [DA].
1984		R. Wilder You All Spoken Here 98: Come-by-chance child: Illegitimate; woods colt; bush colt; catch colt; old field colt; outsider; volunteer; yard child; bantlin’.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 37: It [bastard] was replaced by such euphemisms as love child, natural child, outside child, wood’s colt.
2001		C. Jeffords Shady Ladies of the Old West 🌐 No ‘respectable’ young man would dare approach a bastard girl with honorable intentions. [This, of course, tended to either perpetuate the cycle or inspire the ‘woods colts’ to depart for fresh fields].