1. Word finder
  2. Word definitions
  3. wildly

Find the word definition

What is "wildly"

Crossword clues for wildly

wildly
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
wildly
adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
fluctuate wildly
▪ Insect populations fluctuate wildly from year to year.
gesticulated wildly
▪ Jane gesticulated wildly and shouted ‘Stop! Stop!’
scream wildly (=in a loud and uncontrolled way)
▪ Poor George, screaming wildly, was carried upstairs by his father.
wildly exaggerated (=by a very large amount, in a way that is not at all realistic)
▪ Wildly exaggerated reports began appearing in the press.
wildly popular (=extremely popular – used especially about something that excites people)
▪ These bands are wildly popular in Cuba.
wildly (=a lot)
▪ Prices varied wildly from store to store.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
different
▪ What begins by looking just a little off parallel might become wildly different.
▪ He never appears wildly different in different contexts - regardless of what those contexts are.
optimistic
▪ This is generally held to be wildly optimistic, and in some quarters, an impossible timescale.
▪ The figures are wildly optimistic, and could only have been extrapolated from a short trial of about 10 operations.
▪ If this figure proves wildly optimistic, Bill Clinton will either have to propose more cuts or spend more money.
▪ Recent surveys show previous estimates of whale numbers to be wildly optimistic.
▪ Critics argued that these estimates were wildly optimistic or that the original figures were far too low.
▪ The figures were wildly optimistic, although the real events were dramatic enough in themselves.
▪ For another, it assumed a stability in the capitalist system which, then and since, seemed wildly optimistic.
popular
▪ And by the late 1970s, the diminutive slot was becoming wildly popular, planning experts say.
▪ The wildly popular Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore because a couple hundred millionaires had lousy seats.
▪ Whereas if he raised it through a levy on Copts that would be wildly popular with everyone else.
successful
▪ As yet, these aren't wildly successful or attractive.
▪ We once did some work with a software firm whose competitor had introduced a wildly successful new home finance program.
▪ The image of Romans as freewheeling, extravagant, anything-goes anarchists is a fraud, a wildly successful con.
▪ The wildly successful Rent returns to Tucson two years after its sold-out run at Centennial Hall.
■ VERB
exaggerate
▪ Had she not wildly exaggerated the significance of the advertisement?
fluctuate
▪ Income: Liable to fluctuate wildly.
▪ By this time Snyder was lapsing in and out of consciousness and his body temperature was fluctuating wildly.
▪ The play fluctuated wildly throughout the three days of the event.
▪ The dam trapped sediments, and water releases fluctuated wildly, depending on hydroelectric-power needs.
▪ I was tall and slim but I had an eating disorder and my weight fluctuated wildly according to how I ate.
▪ The price of bread cereals, on which labouring families spent a vast proportion of their wages, fluctuated wildly.
▪ Lily had experienced pain there and her temperature fluctuated wildly.
gesture
▪ Inside, I gestured wildly down to Andre who, while all dressed up, was standing around counting flies.
look
▪ Corbett looked wildly around and saw others.
▪ Joseph looked wildly round the throne room, expecting to see the emperor and the Resident Superior bolting for cover.
▪ She looked wildly round the lobby.
run
▪ Then she started running wildly through the streets, and when she was exhausted she stopped and burst into tears.
▪ She ran wildly out into the street and begged a man she knew to come back with her.
▪ But their laughter soon stopped when they saw Sir Hugo's horse running wildly towards them without a rider.
▪ They succumb to cramp, fall off the track or simply run wildly off course.
stare
▪ Gasping for breath, she stared wildly round to convince herself of where she was.
▪ Still clutching the leg he flicked his own little torch back on again and stared wildly round.
swing
▪ Daak was moving again now, swinging wildly from side to side in an attempt to avoid the lasers' targeting.
▪ For in practice, the shift in the focus of monetary policy meant that interest rates would swing wildly.
▪ Through the smoke he saw the balloon dropping, its basket swinging wildly.
▪ Allowing interest rates to swing wildly meant allowing bond prices to swing wildly.
▪ The Test has been delicately poised for four days, with fortunes swinging wildly.
▪ Allowing interest rates to swing wildly meant allowing bond prices to swing wildly.
▪ She lashed out, her arm swinging wildly.
▪ Some ropes had come loose and were swinging wildly in the wind.
think
▪ I love him, I want him, she thought wildly.
▪ I can't listen to any more of this, he thought wildly.
▪ It was like a nightmare, she thought wildly.
▪ Yes, she thought wildly, this is surely the source of Araminta's inherited spite.
▪ She thought wildly of dashing to the windows, out on to the balcony.
▪ A perfect position for bracing himself to kiss her, Ruth thought wildly in the heat of the moment.
vary
▪ Applications varied wildly in calibre and content.
▪ Estimates of the total cost vary wildly from $ 200 billion to $ 500 billion per year.
▪ Young people would not be encouraged to pick and mix wildly varying modules to make up a course.
▪ All around him he could feel the centrifuge shaking and laboring under the wildly varying loads.
▪ More recent estimates have varied wildly.
▪ It could oscillate between values, vary wildly, or lock up.
▪ Visions of the industry's future vary wildly.
▪ Taste in chocolate varies wildly, depending on your palate and what part of the world you come from.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And now that they were alone, Matilda all of a sudden became wildly animated.
▪ Estimates of the total cost vary wildly from $ 200 billion to $ 500 billion per year.
▪ Her lips quivered wildly and she gestured behind her at nothing.
▪ His body began to thrash wildly.
▪ Or maybe she was wildly wrong about both of them.
▪ This is generally held to be wildly optimistic, and in some quarters, an impossible timescale.
▪ Tuition has not risen wildly, nor have student grades.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Wildly

Wildly \Wild"ly\, adv. In a wild manner; without cultivation; with disorder; rudely; distractedly; extravagantly.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
wildly

early 15c., from wild (adj.) + -ly (2).

Wiktionary
wildly

adv. In a wild, uncontrolled manner.

WordNet
wildly

  1. adv. to an extreme or greatly exaggerated degree; "the storyline is wildly unrealistic"

  2. in an uncontrolled or unrestrained manner; "He gesticulated wildly"

  3. with violent and uncontrollable passion; "attacked wildly, slashing and stabbing over and over"

Usage examples of "wildly".

I ran, carrying the cat litter box like a pizza tray, disrupting the class, causing Winnie to become highly agitato, unable to explain because I had a cigar in my mouth and was carrying a pizza tray and running for my life from men who were carrying wildly beeping receivers which made them Israeli spies and men who were wildly firing weapons which made them Arab terrorists and the whole macho parade failing to arouse or interest the girls in the slightest, which, of course, made them lesbians.

As those words were written on his chart Amado Ortega was dying of bubonic plague in its wildly infectious pneumonic form.

When I began asking, a little wildly, what they had found beyond the anomaly, his withered hand lifted impatiently to cut me off.

The pound had been fluctuating wildly in the money markets of the world and the arbitrage dealers had made a killing.

Even Seri, usually level-headed and calm, had flung herself on Aris, sobbing wildly, in the first hours after.

The street they were following crossed a small square in which a wildly gesticulating ayatollah clad in a yellow tunic and green smock was haranguing a crowd pressed from wall to wall.

Then, wildly reckless, she commandeered her last cloth length of linen for bandaging and packed the leftover victuals into her satchel.

Clod, Aunt Viney, and, above all, Bim, who barked loudly, and rushed wildly about the room at this honorable mention of his name.

Perceiving that his thoughts were beginning to veer wildly, Crockett gulped the last of his meal and followed Brockle Buhn to the anthracite tunnel.

They struck at him wildly at first, and their blows, unable to make proper con-tact with his fast moving form, slid harmlessly off the smooth curved ceramite of his armour.

They struck at him wildly at first, and their blows, unable to make proper contact with his fast moving form, slid harmlessly off the smooth curved ceramite of his armour.

About twenty paces behind, Abrane, Fleetwood, and one whom they called Chummy Potts, were wildly waving arms.

Mother cried out in a fright, and struggled up into a sitting posture, and clutched wildly at anything that would help her.

There she was, waving wildly as she ran along the concourse toward the debarkation gate.

His linguistic writings, though often rather wildly dilettantish, are interesting for his great insight into the shades of meaning of words, for his pious, if uninformed, interest in Old Russian literature and folklore, and for the excellent Russian in which they are written.