How to Use wildcatter in a Sentence

wildcatter

noun
  • Wildcatters have moved in, and so have the armed groups that now call themselves the law here.
    — Written By Nicholas Casey; Photographs By Meridith Kohut, New York Times, 16 Aug. 2016
  • Too high, and the wildcatters in Texas would drill for fresh supply.
    — The Economist, 18 Jan. 2018
  • Jones is a wildcatter from way back with a bit of riverboat gambler thrown in for good measure.
    — Michael Gehlken, Dallas News, 21 Sep. 2021
  • In another spot, hundreds of wildcatters had dug out a gaping maw of red and white soil.
    — Written By Nicholas Casey; Photographs By Meridith Kohut, New York Times, 16 Aug. 2016
  • After college, Red worked as a wildcatter for an oil company.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Mar. 2021
  • As the wildcatters pump water into the earth, deep pits form and the amber, lighter than the rocks and sand, is pushed up in the water column.
    — Brendan Hoffman, National Geographic, 31 Jan. 2017
  • The energy behemoths have the balance-sheets to buy the wildcatters.
    — The Economist, 9 Aug. 2019
  • The robber barons and telecom wildcatters borrowed to build their empires, and dragged their financiers down with them when the music stopped.
    — Liz Hoffman, semafor.com, 23 Sep. 2025
  • But Tennessee is trying to tap into our greatness like a wildcatter drilling into someone else’s oil field.
    — Los Angeles Times, 13 Jan. 2023
  • The joke wore off in the 2000s when wildcatters and independent oil producers began to crack the hard-rock code.
    — Kevin Crowley, Bloomberg.com, 7 Mar. 2018
  • Most wildcatters work seven days a week and take time off only during important Buddhist festivals.
    — Photographs and Text By Adam Dean, New York Times, 22 May 2017
  • Don Graham, a Texas writer and professor, digs into Giant like a wildcatter drilling for oil.
    — Gary M. Kramer, Philly.com, 4 May 2018
  • His father, Paul, was Canadian and earned his millions as an oil wildcatter in Alberta.
    — Ryan O'Halloran, The Denver Post, 14 June 2019
  • With a mop of unkempt hair and a penchant for elegant double-breasted suits, Souki didn’t look the part of a Houston wildcatter.
    — New York Times, 6 July 2022
  • The studio was then owned by wildcatter Marvin Davis, a six-foot-four, three-hundred-pound man of Falstaffian appetites.
    — Gabriel Sherman, HollywoodReporter, 3 Feb. 2026
  • The billionaire former wildcatter will be inducted in August.
    — Schuyler Dixon, The Denver Post, 27 Feb. 2017
  • When prices shot up in 2018, wildcatters immediately headed to that region.
    — Michael Braga, The Arizona Republic, 14 May 2024
  • Continental Resources was founded by an Enid wildcatter.
    — Josh Kelly, Oklahoman, 11 Feb. 2026
  • Centuries later, tequila has exploded again, in a gusher that has turned unlikely gringo wildcatters into tequila billionaires.
    — Mark Seal, WSJ, 19 June 2018
  • The strategy isn’t as risky as staking wildcatters or borrowing heavily to buy entire oil companies, but profits are usually lower.
    — Ryan Dezember, WSJ, 16 July 2017
  • Yet amid this Boy Scout good behaviour, the wildcatter spirit remains—all couched in typical industry hyperbole.
    — The Economist, 10 May 2018
  • Starting in the early 1900s, wildcatters searched for ‘black gold’ from Pensacola down to the Florida Keys.
    — Kylie Williams, Miami Herald, 29 Nov. 2025
  • Many Texas wildcatters are predicting a rapid decline in production growth next year, while some Democratic contenders for the White House have called for a ban on fracking.
    — Washington Post, 29 Nov. 2019
  • Sgamma pointed to George Mitchell, the wildcatter who pioneered directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the 1990s.
    — Brian Maffly, The Salt Lake Tribune, 21 Dec. 2020
  • Three years later, the hill and 2 square miles of the surrounding plains incorporated as the city of Signal Hill, a settlement of roughnecks and wildcatters, an oil boomtown during the time when California produced a quarter of the world’s oil.
    — Scott Garner, latimes.com, 22 June 2018
  • Oil was discovered there in the 1920s, and the county went through booms and busts for decades, enriching wildcatters and devastating the landscape, until a lasting bust left Loving County a virtual wasteland with no running water, paved roads, schools, hospitals, or grocery stores.
    — Mitch Moxley, Rolling Stone, 27 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wildcatter.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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