wildcat

wildcat common name of Old World cats ( Felis sylvestris ) of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The wildcat resembles a large domestic tabby cat with a heavy tail; its fur is brownish to gray, with a pattern of light stripes. It can and does interbreed with domestic cats. The five subspecies are the European, Near Eastern, Southern African, Central Asian, and Chinese desert cats. The Near Eastern wildcat ( F. sylvestris lybica ) was apparently domesticated some 10,000 years ago, possibly when the cats began to prey on mice and rats attracted to ancient granaries, and is ancestral to the modern domestic cat. The name wildcat is also applied regionally to a variety of small cats. In North America it is a common name for the bobcat (see lynx ).

Wildcat F4F a single-seat single-engine shipboard fighter, the primary airplane used on carriers when the United States entered World War II. It resembled a barrel in shape, but was well-armed and extremely reliable.

wildcat taken as a type of savagery and hot temper, especially in a woman.

From the early 19th century wildcat has been used to designate a person engaging in a risky or unsafe enterprise, or an unsound business undertaking. It was applied specifically to banks in the western US which, before the passing of the National Bank Act of 1863, fraudulently issued notes supported by little or no capital; the use of the name is said to derive from the fact that the notes of a bank in Michigan carried the device of a panther or ‘wild cat’.