wildcat n.
1. in financial contexts [wildcat banks existed in the western US before the National Bank Act of 1863 and were virtually unregulated. The notes they issued were essentially worthless].
(a) the notes issued by a wildcat bank; thus any worthless money.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | N.Y. Advertiser and Express 10 Mar. 2/4: ‘Wild Cat’ will buy provisions of no kind [DA]. | |
| (con. c.1900) King Blood (1989) 33: He had the ten-dollar banknote, a worthless wildcat. |
(b) (US) an unsound, dubious business, esp. a ‘wildcat bank’.
| N.Y. Advertiser and Express 21 Apr. 1/4: Aptly enough are these banks called ‘Wild Cat’ and ‘Red Dog.’. | |
| Congressional Globe 13 Jan. Appendix 65: Does he not know that it is the old, worn out, used up, dead and gone slang upon which every red dog, wild cat, owl creek, coon box, and Cairo swindling shop obtained their charters? | |
| Congressional Globe 15 Jan. 342/3: Governor Matteson [...] was king of the so-called ‘wild cats’; he owned stock-banks in all directions. | |
 | Mag. Western Hist. III 202/2: The banks toppled to the earth [...]. They were known universally under the name of ‘wild-cats.’ The most worthless were styled ‘red-dog’ [DA]. | |
| Nation 3 Dec. 417/2: The question now coming up is whether this feature of our banking system can be amended without giving the field to wildcats [DA]. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Jan. 14/1: It is ‘agen’ everything. It calls its mining information ‘The Wild Cat Column,’ and assumes that every mine is a wild cat and the directors a set of scoundrels. | |
| Keys to Crookdom 422: Wildcat. A dishonest scheme. |
2. pertaining to intoxicants.
(a) (US, also wildcat whisky) illicitly distilled whisky; also attrib.
| Rugby Tennessee 64: They are sadly weak when wild-cat whisky — or ‘moonshine,’ as the favorite illicit beverage of the mountains is called — crosses their path [DA]. | |
| Fort Worth Gaz. (TX) 29 Dec. 7/1: A barrel of wildcat whisky was brought to light, and two worthies languish in the toils of the law. | |
| Colfax Chron. (LA) 16 Nov. 2/3: We were all busy boiling wildcat whisky. | |
| Perrysburg Jrnl (OH) 27 Oct. 3/2: A blind rage [...]the effects of the wild-cat whisky acting on him. | |
| Tacoma Times )Wash.) 22 Apr. 3/2: Revenue officers have [...] captured so much ‘wildcat’ whisky that the custom house [...] smells of ‘corn likker’. | |
| Maui News (HI) 2 Mar. 8/5: Down in my part of the country if a man lays 50 cents on a stump and hoots like an owl he can get a quart of wildcat whiskey. | |
| Ol’ Man Adam 20: I drunk some of dat new wildcat yistiddy, and hit burnt de skin off of my th’oat so I can’t drink no more [DA]. | |
| Suwannee River 135: Cane beer, with a sweet-sour taste, would be made from the fermented skimmings and, later, would form excellent ‘buck’ for a wildcat still [DA]. | |
| Chicago Trib. 18 Nov. VII1/2: Ma [...] went on week-end sprees with wildcat likker [DA]. |
(b) (US Und.) an illicit brewery; also attrib.
| Dialect Tales 143: You’re up the Cumberland spyin’ for wild-cat stills. [Ibid.] 162: Them wild-cat devils who helped t’ run Welch’s still. | |
| Phila. Eve. Bulletin 5 Oct. 40/5: Here are a few more terms and definitions from the ‘Racket’ vocabulary: [...] ‘wild-cat,’ a place where beer is made illegally. |
(c) (drugs) methcathinone cut with cocaine.
| ONDCP Street Terms 22: Wild cat — Methcathinone mixed with cocaine. |
3. (US black) someone who participates intensely and also to his own advantage in street life [SE wildcat/wild/wild adj. (2) + cat n.5 (1)].
| Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. |