WILDNESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does wildness mean? 

• WILDNESS (noun)
  The noun WILDNESS has 4 senses:

1. a feeling of extreme emotional intensity

2. the property of being wild or turbulent

3. an unruly disposition to do as one pleases

4. an intractably barbarous or uncultivated state of nature

  Familiarity information: WILDNESS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WILDNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A feeling of extreme emotional intensity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

abandon; wildness

Context example:

the wildness of his anger

Hypernyms ("wildness" is a kind of...):

passion; passionateness (a strong feeling or emotion)

Derivation:

wild (in a state of extreme emotion)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The property of being wild or turbulent

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

ferocity; fierceness; furiousness; fury; vehemence; violence; wildness

Context example:

the storm's violence

Hypernyms ("wildness" is a kind of...):

intensity; intensiveness (high level or degree; the property of being intense)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wildness"):

savageness; savagery (the property of being untamed and ferocious)

Derivation:

wild ((of the elements) as if showing violent anger)

wild ((of colors or sounds) intensely vivid or loud)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An unruly disposition to do as one pleases

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

the element of wildness in his behavior was a protest against repressive convention

Hypernyms ("wildness" is a kind of...):

fractiousness; unruliness; wilfulness; willfulness (the trait of being prone to disobedience and lack of discipline)

Derivation:

wild (marked by extreme lack of restraint or control)

Sense 4

Meaning:

An intractably barbarous or uncultivated state of nature

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("wildness" is a kind of...):

intractability; intractableness (the trait of being hard to influence or control)

Attribute:

untamed; wild (in a natural state; not tamed or domesticated or cultivated)

Antonym:

tameness (the attribute of having been domesticated)

Derivation:

wild (without civilizing influences)

 Context examples 

Maybe the first shock was too rough, and in the wildness of her art—!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She was a woman, now, and Martin noted that her wild, defiant beauty had improved, losing none of its wildness, while the defiance and the fire seemed more in control.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Covered with ice, it was only to be distinguished from land by its superior wildness and ruggedness.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Faithfulness and devotion, things born of fire and roof, were his; yet he retained his wildness and wiliness.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Two delightful twilight walks on the third and fourth evenings of her being there, not merely on the dry gravel of the shrubbery, but all over the grounds, and especially in the most distant parts of them, where there was something more of wildness than in the rest, where the trees were the oldest, and the grass was the longest and wettest, had—assisted by the still greater imprudence of sitting in her wet shoes and stockings—given Marianne a cold so violent as, though for a day or two trifled with or denied, would force itself by increasing ailments on the concern of every body, and the notice of herself.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Her movements upon the Monday night have not yet been traced, but it is undoubted that a woman answering to her description attracted much attention at Charing Cross Station on Tuesday morning by the wildness of her appearance and the violence of her gestures.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Soon as she see him, without him seeing her, all her fear and wildness returned upon her, and she fled afore the very breath he draw'd.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She had thought he had got over his youthful wildness, that her love for him had been sufficiently worth while to enable him to live seriously and decently.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I never saw a more interesting creature: his eyes have generally an expression of wildness, and even madness, but there are moments when, if anyone performs an act of kindness towards him or does him any the most trifling service, his whole countenance is lighted up, as it were, with a beam of benevolence and sweetness that I never saw equalled.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The repose of the latter became more and more disturbed; and her sister, who watched, with unremitting attention her continual change of posture, and heard the frequent but inarticulate sounds of complaint which passed her lips, was almost wishing to rouse her from so painful a slumber, when Marianne, suddenly awakened by some accidental noise in the house, started hastily up, and, with feverish wildness, cried out,—Is mama coming?

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)