subs. phr. (colloquial).—1. Youthful pranks or folly; hence (2) a rake or debauchee. TO SOW ONE’S WILD OATS = to indulge in folly or dissipation, and (by implication) to grow steady.
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.
1573. TUSSER, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie, 17. Bridle WILD OTES fantasie.
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!
1616–25. The Court and Times of James the First, ii. 85. [A youth is called] the WILD OATS of Ireland.
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.
c. 1712. D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy (1712), ii. 276.
| 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.
1874. BEETON, The Siliad, 108.
| Assorted hosts | |
| Besiege the Hebes of the Old Blue Posts, | |
| Push in to patronize the Barnes called Ned— | |
| Barnes, where, alas! WILD OATS are garneréd. |
1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 23 Jan. Dad’s very kind, and makes me a good allowance that I may SOW MY WILD OATS, but I seem only to buy more.
