wilderness Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun (politics) a state of disfavor
    • he led the Democratic party back from the wilderness
  2. noun a wooded region in northeastern Virginia near Spotsylvania where bloody but inconclusive battles were fought in the American Civil War
  3. noun a wild and uninhabited area left in its natural condition
    wild.
    • it was a wilderness preserved for the hawks and mountaineers
  4. noun a bewildering profusion
    • the duties of citizenship are lost sight of in the wilderness of interests of individuals and groups
    • a wilderness of masts in the harbor

WordNet

Wil"der*ness noun
Etymology
OE. wildernesse, wilderne,probably from AS. wildor a wild beast; cf. D. wildernis wilderness. See Wilder, v. t.
Definitions
  1. A tract of land, or a region, uncultivated and uninhabited by human beings, whether a forest or a wide, barren plain; a wild; a waste; a desert; a pathless waste of any kind.
    The wat'ry wilderness yields no supply. Waller.
  2. A disorderly or neglected place. Cowper.
  3. Quality or state of being wild; wildness. Obs.
    These paths and bowers doubt not but our joint hands. Will keep from wilderness with ease. Milton.

Webster 1913