babe in the woods
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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.
QUIZ
THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?
Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.
Question 1 of 7
In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…
Words nearby babe in the woods
Babcock test, babe, Bab ed-Din, babe-in-a-cradle, babe in arms, babe in the woods, Babel, Babelism, Babelize, Babelized, Bab el Mandeb
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