wild oats
Britishplural noun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In the bad, late-'90s cable version of this story, Minda's sowing her wild oats but eventually realizes he's the one, and then they get married and have babies and whatever.
From Salon ● Oct. 1, 2023
In Season 2, Gwen has attempted to sow her wild oats as a D.J. in Bali, and she returns home with a fresh, if not always welcome, perspective.
From New York Times ● Aug. 4, 2022
Prince Karl goes to university in Heidelberg, sows wild oats, and falls in love with an innkeeper’s niece.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 2021
When the first ranchers arrived in Boulder, they encountered nearly ideal rangeland: dense with bluegrass and bunchgrass and wild oats, veined with natural troughs to channel the rain.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 24, 2018
The wild oats had headed out barely six inches above the ground, as though with knowledge that if they didn’t make seed quickly they wouldn’t get to seed at all.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
