wild oats
Reckless youth's adventures
Wild oats are a weedy grass species related to cultivated oats, growing unchecked in fields and roadsides.
The phrase appears almost exclusively in sow one's wild oats—to indulge in youthful excesses, especially sexual adventures, before settling down: He spent his twenties sowing wild oats before marrying at thirty.
Planting for cultivation
- youthState of being immature
- indiscretionUnwise act or remark
- recklessCarelessly ignoring danger
- misspentUsed badly or foolishly
carousing · escapades · fling · affair · promiscuity · debauchery · philandering · gallivanting
Processed grain for breakfast
- grassNarrow-leaved ground cover
- weedUninvited plant
- cropCultivated agricultural plants
- harvestGathering mature crops
threshing · chaff · kernel · husk · panicle · spikelets · fodder · forage
Seed's initial growth phase
- sowingPlanting for cultivation
- tillageSoil preparation for planting
- plowingTurning earth for crops
- furrowNarrow trench in earth
seedbed · planting · soil preparation · crop rotation · weeding · herbicide · infestation · eradication
sowing
Planting for cultivation
- youthState of being immature
- indiscretionUnwise act or remark
- recklessCarelessly ignoring danger
misspent · carousing · escapades · fling · affair · promiscuity · debauchery · philandering · gallivanting · hell-raising
cereal
Processed grain for breakfast
harvest · threshing · chaff · kernel · husk · panicle · spikelets · fodder · forage · hay
germination
Seed's initial growth phase
furrow · seedbed · planting · soil preparation · crop rotation · weeding · herbicide · infestation · eradication · volunteer
- adolescencepuberty, teenager, coming-of-age, growing up, teen
- farm idiomsmake hay while the sun shines, cream of the crop, put the cart before the horse, till the cows come home, buy the farm
- tall grassespampas grass, switchgrass, giant reed, common reed, reed
- Pampaspampas, pampas grass, estancia, gauchos, plains
- youth sayingsfountain of youth, salad days, spring chicken, tender age, young at heart
wild oatssettling down
Becoming stable and rooted
domesticity · marriage · commitment · responsibility · stability
wild oatsresponsibility
State of being answerable
self-discipline · restraint · sobriety · prudence · maturity
wild, wilderness, oats, oat, oatcake, groats, oatcakes, oaty, wild oat