English

Alternative forms

• wild land

Noun

wildland ‎(countable and uncountable, plural wildlands)

1. land that is unfit for, or has not been modified by, cultivation or other human activity; a natural area.
   • 1837, Lord Glenelg, question submitted to the law officers of the Crown in England, quoted in Justice Gwynne, opinion in Mercer v. Attorney General for Ontario, 1881, in Reports of the Supreme Court of Canada, Volume V, page 686,

     Whether it is in point of law competent for his Majesty, with the advice of and consent of the Legislative Council and Assembly of New Brunswick, to render the tracts of wildland in the colony which belong to his Majesty jure coronæ subject to the appropriation of the legislature of the province for a fixed period or in perpetuity in return for a civil list to be settled on the Crown for a similar term, or in perpetuity as may be thought best?

   • 1883 September 22, Mallerstang Forest and Pendragon Castle, Westmoreland (book review), in Manchester City News, Notes and Queries section, No. 37, reprinted in J. H. Nodal (ed.), City News Notes and Queries, City News Office (1883–4), Volume V, page 136,

     The traveller by the Midland Railway line to Carlisle passes through Mallerstang in the stretch of wildland traversed before reaching Kirkby Stephen, but there is no station in any portion of the valley to acquaint him with the fact.

Usage notes

• The singular form wildland is commonly used in noun compounds, either attributively as in “wildland fire”, “wildland ecosystem”, “wildland preservation” and so on, or via hyphenation as in “wildland-urban interface” (WUI). Otherwise, this term is ordinarily found in its plural form wildlands.

Synonyms

• wasteland
• wilderness

Hypernyms

• land

Related terms

• wildlife
• wildling

Translations