wild oat

1. often wild oats Any of various oats that are not cultivated and are often weeds in cereal crops, especially Avena fatua.

2. wild oats Misdeeds and indiscretions committed when young.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

wild oats

pl n

slang the indiscretions of youth, esp dissoluteness before settling down (esp in the phrase sow one's wild oats)

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

wild oats - any of various plants of the genus Uvularia having yellowish drooping bell-shaped flowers

bellwort, merry bells

flower - a plant cultivated for its blooms or blossoms

genus Uvularia, Uvularia - genus of perennial rhizomatous herb of southern and southeastern United States

cornflower, strawflower, Uvularia grandiflora - plant of southern and southeastern United States grown for its yellow flowers that can be dried

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References in classic literature

On the other side was comparatively level ground, thickly covered with wild oats. As we emerged from the chaparral Morgan was but a few yards in advance.

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There was yet a fertile strip of time wherein to sow my last handful of the wild oats of youth.

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For the nonce, however, he proposed to sail about, and sow his wild oats in all four oceans.

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He is particularly grieved at me, because, forsooth he had fallen in love with you from his sister's reports, and meant to have married you himself, as soon as he had sown his wild oats.'

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The two made one crop of wild oats, for which he was heartily sorry, and he could not see that those oats are of a darker stock which are rooted in another's dishonour.

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Grundy will observe, "I don't believe it, boys will be boys, young men must sow their wild oats, and women must not expect miracles." I dare say you don't, Mrs.

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Then, too, my mother said I had sown my wild oats and it was time I settled down to a regular job.

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"He will sow his wild oats," she would say, "and is worth far more than that puling hypocrite of a brother of his."

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"But by marriages of prudence we mean those in which both parties have sown their wild oats already.

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Dense chaparral covered the exposed hillsides but in the creases of the canons huge spruce trees grew, and wild oats and flowers.

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Her son, Mr Henry Gowan, inheriting from his father, the Commissioner, that very questionable help in life, a very small independence, had been difficult to settle; the rather, as public appointments chanced to be scarce, and his genius, during his earlier manhood, was of that exclusively agricultural character which applies itself to the cultivation of wild oats. At last he had declared that he would become a Painter; partly because he had always had an idle knack that way, and partly to grieve the souls of the Barnacles-in-chief who had not provided for him.

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'Mr Swiveller,' said Quilp, 'being pretty well accustomed to the agricultural pursuits of sowing wild oats, Miss Sally, prudently considers that half a loaf is better than no bread.

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