▪ I. wilding, n. and a.
(ˈwaɪldɪŋ)
Forms: 6 wyldyng, -ynge, -ing(e, wildinge, 7 wilden, 6– wilding.
[f. wild a. + -ing3.]
A. n.
The meaning in the following quot. has not been ascertained:—
1296 Acc. Exch. K.R. 5/20 m. 1 (P.R.O.) In .ij. petris de Burre emptis..et quatuor petris de Wyldyng emptis de vxore Andree Skaket.
1. A wild apple or apple-tree; a crab-apple or crab-tree.
| 1525 Grete Herbal cclxxxiii. (1529) Q ij, De macianis pomis. Wood crabbes, or wyldynges. 1530 Palsgr. 289/1 Wyldyng a sower apple, pomme de boys. 1621 T. Granger Expos. Eccles. xii. 13. 342 The wilding maketh a fairer shew then many a good apple, but by the taste. 1651 R. Child in Hartlib's Legacy (1655) 16, I never saw..any Apples or Pears thrive in an Hedge, unless Crab, or a Wilden, or some Sweeting of little worth. 1697 Dryden Virg. Past. iii. 107 Ten ruddy Wildings in the Wood I found. 1776 Bolton in A. Young Tour Irel. (1780) II. 202 Do not press wildings till Candlemas. 1786 Abercrombie Arr. in Gard. Assist. p. xi, Apples valued principally for Cyder. Royal wilding. 1842 Loudon Suburban Hort. 535 Wildings or seedling apple stocks. |
2. gen. A wild plant, flower, or fruit.
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 73 b, The Filbert will onely be graffed in the Wilding. 1586 Warner Alb. Eng. iv. xx. (1612) 95 Wildings, or the Seasons-fruit he did in scrip bestow. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. vii. 17 Oft from the forrest wildings he did bring. a 1700 Sedley 4th Bk. Virg. Georg. Wks. 1778 I. 33 Among the wildings..they [sc. bees] feed. 1791 W. Gilpin Forest Scenery II. 37 The wildings of the forest. 1813 Scott Rokeby ii. ix, Nor wilding green, nor woodland flower, Arose within its baleful bower. 1826 Campbell Field Flowers i, Ye field flowers!..wildings of Nature, I doat upon you. 1840 Cottager's Man. 14 in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb. III, The principle is to form the hedge of a double row of wildings. 1884 Browning Ferishtah, Mihrab Shah 74 The wilding,..Ruffled outside at pleasure of the blast. 1892 C. E. Norton Dante's Paradise xxvii. 178 Well blossoms the will in men, but the continual rain converts the true plums into wildings. |
3. A wild animal. rare.
| 1897 Advance (Chicago) 23 Sept. 409/3 Not a specimen of these wildings [sc. deer, turkey, and otter] can be seen now. |
4. fig. (applied to a person or thing).
| 1621 T. Granger Expos. Eccles. vii. 7. 165 These are Sathans wildings, whom he hath blinded, and so rideth them at his pleasure. 1866 Lawrence Sans Merci xiv, He made professional acquaintance with two or three wildings of gentle birth. 1881 Stevenson Virg. Puerisque 6 The air of the fireside withers out all the fine wildings of the husband's heart. 1906 Athenæum 29 Dec. 822/1 He was swayed by the wildings of his imagination and his affections. 1908 E. Wharton Hermit i. iii. 17 You are not a heathen wilding, but a child of Christ. |
B. attrib. or adj.
1. Applied to a crab-apple or crab-tree: cf. A. 1.
| 1538 Elyot, Arbutus, a wyldyng tree. 1552 Huloet, Wildinge aple, or crabbe, arbutum. 1575 A. F. Virg. Bucol. iii. 9, From a wylding tree, Ten Apples rype I sent. 1632 Brome Crt. Beggar ii. i, He lookes so like a wilding crab, good neither for drink nor sauce. 1650 [W. Howe] Phytol. Brit. 73 Crab-tree, or Wilden-tree. 1665 Lovell Herball (ed. 2) 469. |
2. a. Of a plant (or its flower or fruit): Growing wild: = wild a. 2. Chiefly poet.
| 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 269 Wilding Blooms. 1810 Scott Lady of L. iv. i, O wilding rose. 1824 Loudon Green-house Comp. i. 227 Grafted on the crab and wilding pear. 1827 Clare Sheph. Cal. 84 Wilding fruit that shines upon the trees. 1895 Crockett Bog-Myrtle & Peat v. iv, Lo the wilding treasure Glows..in my sweetheart's gardens. |
b. Of an animal: = wild a. 1. poet. rare.
| 1856 Bryant Gladness of Nature ii, The wilding bee hums merrily by. |
3. fig. Developed without culture or training, like a wild plant; natural, native.
| 1884 Symonds Shaks. Predec. vii. (1900) 199 It was too late now for critics..to resist that growth of wilding art. |
▪ II. wilding, n.2 U.S. slang.
(ˈwaɪldɪŋ)
[f. wild a. + -ing1 (see also quot. 19902).]
The action or practice by a gang of youths of going on a protracted and violent rampage in a street, park, or other public place, attacking or mugging people at random along the way; also, an instance of this.
| 1989 N.Y. Times 22 Apr. 1/1 Some of the 20 youths brought in for questioning had told investigators that the crime spree was the product of a pastime called ‘wilding’. ‘It's not a term that we in the police had heard before,’ the chief said. 1989 Austin (Texas) Amer.-Statesman 29 Apr. c4/3 Seven teen-agers are now charged as members of the gang who brutalized the woman during a night of ‘wilding’. 1990 N.Y. Times 13 Jan. 27/1 There has been little response by the city government to the wide-spread concern over wilding in general. 1990 Sunday Correspondent 17 June 14/8 Because one of the defendants muttered something about Wild Thing—a rap version of an ancient hit song—there was a brief spasm of excitement about a possible new phenomenon known as ‘Wilding’. 1991 Time 17 June 66/1 Do the Right Thing had critics predicting that the film would foment wildings by blacks against whites. |