(Also as one word, or as two.) Forms: see WILD a. and FOWL; also 6 wyelfoyle. [Cf. MLG., G. wildvogel, ON. villifygli (Sw. vildfågel, early Da. vildfugl).] A wild bird, or (usually) wild birds collectively; chiefly applied to those caught for food, game birds (now esp. of the duck and goose kinds).
a. 1000. Bi Manna Wyrdum, 85 (Gr.). Sum sceal wildne fuʓel wloncne atemian, heafoc on honda.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. X. 363. Delyte in wyn and wylde foule.
a. 1417. York Memo. Bk. (Surtees), I. 223. Pultre wyldefoule and other vytayll.
1439. Maldon, Essex, Court-roll, Bundle 25. No. 1. Johannes Yutte est communis foristallator volucrum vocat. Wyldefoule.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxxix. 19. Vennesoun, wyld fowill, wyne and spyce.
1532–3. Durham Househ. Bk. (Surtees), 215. Et de magistro de Fayrne 6 dd. wyelfoyle et 4 puffyngs.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., IV. ii. 55. What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning Wildefowle?
1784. Cowper, Task, IV. 612. Whoso seeks an audit here Propitious, pays his tribute, game or fish, Wild-fowl or ven’son.
1817. Scott, Harold, V. xvi. As the scared wild-fowl scream and fly.
b. Humorously misapplied in the first quot. to a wild beast; hence allusively; also fig. of persons.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., III. i. 33. There is not a more fearefull wilde foule then your Lyon liuing.
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., V. iii. What’s your med’cine, To draw so many seuerall sorts of wild-fowle?
1905. Times Lit. Suppl., 3 Feb., 38/1. One has to drag in fundamental principles of art and other fearful wildfowl.
c. attrib.
1825. Hood, To Mrs. Fry, x. To tame the wild-fowl-ways of Jenny Diver!
1870. N. F. Hele, Aldeburgh, ii. 8. Very few wild-fowl shooters frequent this part of the river.
1886. C. E. Pascoe, London of To-day, xli. (ed. 3), 360. Wild fowl guns.
Hence Wild-fowler, a sportsman who shoots or catches wild-fowl; Wild-fowling, the pursuit or capture of wild-fowl.
1859. Folkard (title), The Wild-Fowler: a Treatise on Ancient and Modern Wild-Fowling.
1874. J. W. Long, Amer. Wild-fowl, xv. 193. In no other branch of wild-fowling is a breech-loader of more advantage than in teal-shooting.
