Wild-cat a.
  1. Unsound; worthless; irresponsible; unsafe; -- said to have been originally applied to the notes of an insolvent bank in Michigan upon which there was the figure of a panther.
  2. Railroad Running without control; running along the line without a train; as, a wild-cat locomotive.
  ◄ ►
  wildcat
       adj 1: outside the bounds of legitimate or ethical business
              practices; "wildcat currency issued by irresponsible
              banks"; "wildcat stock speculation"; "a wildcat
              airline"; "wildcat life insurance schemes"
       2: without official authorization; "an unauthorized strike";
          "wildcat work stoppage" [syn: unauthorized, unauthorised]
       3: (of a mine or oil well) drilled speculatively in an area not
          known to be productive; "drilling there would be strictly
          a wildcat operation"; "a wildcat mine"; "wildcat
          drilling"; "wildcat wells"
       n 1: an exploratory oil well drilled in land not known to be an
            oil field [syn: wildcat well]
       2: a cruelly rapacious person [syn: beast, wolf, savage,
          brute]
       3: any small or medium-sized cat resembling the domestic cat
          and living in the wild
       [also: wildcatting, wildcatted]