Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WIL'DER-NESS, n. [from wild.]

1. A desert; a tract of land or region uncultivated and uninhabited by human beings, whether a forest or a wide barren plain. In the United States, it is applied only to a forest. In Scripture, it is applied frequently to the deserts of Arabia. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness forty years.
2. The ocean. The wat'ry wilderness yields no supply. – Waller.
3. A state of disorder. [Not in use.]
4. A wood in a garden, resembling a forest.