Wildcatter
//ˈwaɪldˌkætə(ɹ)// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Someone who drills for oil speculatively. US
- 2 an oilman who drills exploratory wells in territory not known to be an oil field wordnet
- 3 A worker who participates in a wildcat strike.
- 4 A person who makes wildcat cartridges and the guns that use them.
"Roy Weatherby began his career in the firearms industry as a “wildcatter”, developing his revolutionary ideas about rifle cartridge performance and design."
Example
More examples"Roy Weatherby began his career in the firearms industry as a “wildcatter”, developing his revolutionary ideas about rifle cartridge performance and design."
Etymology
From wildcat + -er.
Related phrases
More for "wildcatter"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.