babe in the woods


An innocent or very naive person who is apt to be duped or victimized, as in She was a babe in the woods where the stock market was concerned. The term originated in a popular ballad of 1595, “The Children in the Wood,” about two young orphans who are abandoned in a forest and die.

Words Nearby babe in the woods

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

How to use babe in the woods in a sentence

  • There will be something doing around your heart, Miss Babe-in-the-Woods, in a very few minutes.

    The Daughter of Anderson Crow | George Barr McCutcheon