wild oats

wild oats

The youthful rebelliousness or promiscuity that one partakes in before settling down. Most commonly used in the phrase "sow (one's) wild oats." Bill and I had to break up because I was looking to get married, and he just wanted to sow his wild oats! You can't sow your wild oats forever! Soon, you'll want a wife and a house, and you'll regret the things you're doing now.

See also: oat, wild

wild oats, to sow one's

To behave foolishly and indulge in excess while one is young. The term has been around since at least the late sixteenth century. It alludes to sowing inferior wild grain instead of superior cultivated grain, analogous here to sexual promiscuity, and suggests that one will eventually outgrow such foolishness. As Thomas Hughes wrote in Tom Brown at Oxford (1861), “A young fellow must sow his wild oats,” but he then adds, “You can make nothing but a devil’s maxim of it.”

See also: sow, wild