wild and woolly
Lawless and chaotic
Wild and woolly describes something rough, uncivilized, or boisterously unruly.
The phrase evokes the American frontier West—untamed territory where things were chaotic and unpredictable: the wild and woolly days of early Hollywood, a wild and woolly debate.
The woolly likely refers to ungroomed sheep or shaggy frontier appearance, reinforcing the sense of something not yet tamed or refined.
- lawlessNot bound by rules
- uncivilizedLacking social graces
- adventurousInclined toward risky endeavors
- savageFierce and untamed
- untamedNot domesticated
primitive · fierce · no holds barred · hell for leather · boisterous · chaotic · rugged · raw · outlaw · shoot from the hip · hectic · free for all · rough-and-tumble · rough around the edges · saloon · feral · frontier · gold rush
wild and woollyprim and proper
Excessively formal and correct
refined · civilized · polished · genteel · well-mannered
wild and woollytame
Made gentle, manageable
civilized · settled · domesticated · established · law-abiding
wild, woolly, wilder, wildest, wildly, wildness, wilderness, wilding, wool