subs. (common).—An atom; a particle: e.g., ‘I’ve not an OAT’ = I’m penniless.
WILD OATS, subs. phr. (old).—A rake; a debauchee: hence, TO SOW ONE’S WILD OATS = to indulge; TO HAVE SOWN ONE’S WILD OATS = to have reformed.
d. 1567. T. BECON, Early Works (1843), 240. The tailors now-a-days are compelled to excogitate, invent, and imagine diversities of fashions for apparel, that they may satisfy the foolish desire of certain light brains and WILD OATS, which are altogether given to new fangleness.
1576. T. NEWTON, tr. Lemnius’s The Touchstone of Complexions, 99. We meane that wilfull and vnruly age, which lacketh rypenes and discretion, and (as wee saye) hath not SOWED all THEYR WYELD OATES.
1602. J. COOKE, How a Man may Choose a Good Wife from a Bad, i., 3 [DODSLEY, Old Plays, 1874, ix., 21]. O. Art. Well, go to, WILD OATS! spendthrift! prodigal!
1670. RAY, Proverbs [BOHN (1893), 178], s.v.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. OATS. One that has SOLD HIS WILD OATS, or one having run out of all, begins to take up and be more staied.
1719. D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, iv. 233.
| Sow your WILD OATS, | |
| And mind not her wild Notes. |
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. OATS, HE HAS SOWED HIS WILD OATS, he is staid, or sober, having left off his wild tricks.
1858. BULWER-LYTTON, What Will He Do with It? VIII. v. Poole had picked up some WILD OATS—he had SOWN them now.
FEED OF OATS, subs. phr. (common).—1. A whip; and (2) a beating.
TO EARN A GALLON OF OATS, verb. phr. (provincial).—Of horses: to fall on the back rolling from one side to the other [HALLIWELL].
TO FEEL ONE’S OATS, verb. phr. (American).—To get bumptious. Cf. BEANS.
1888. St. Paul and Minneapolis Pioneer, 22 July. The Kentuckians have certainly brought Little Falls to the front during the past year, and Little Falls FEELS HER OATS, and will undoubtedly expand under her new name of Falls City.
