wild oats
slang the indiscretions of youth, esp dissoluteness before settling down (esp in the phrase sow one's wild oats)
Words Nearby wild oats
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
How to use wild oats in a sentence
French voters, typically, are willing to give plenty of leeway to politicians sowing wild oats extra-conjugally.
You will forgive me, my dear, when I say that I think your husband has already sown a sufficiently large crop of wild oats.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume II (of 3) | Charles James WillsFor half a century, then, all wild oats from elsewhere usually sprouted at the Gap.
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine | John Fox, Jr.He had tried every game of chance and gone through all other operations collectively known as "sowing one's wild oats."
All He Knew | John HabbertonIn early days herds of a very large deer, called elk, fed on the wild oats and grass.
Stories of California | Ella M. Sexton
This meal, or that from wild oats, was also mixed into a dough and baked on hot stones into bread.
Stories of California | Ella M. Sexton
Other Idioms and Phrases with wild oats
see sow one's wild oats.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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