sow one's wild oats

English

Alternative forms

• sow wild oats, sow one's oats

Etymology

From being a typical useless or counterproductive occupation (wild oats is a weed, and would not be sown).

Verb

sow one's wild oats (third-person singular simple present sows one's wild oats, present participle sowing one's wild oats, simple past sowed one's wild oats, past participle sown one's wild oats or sowed one's wild oats)

1. (figuratively, of a male) To spread one's genes around by impregnating many females.
2. (by extension, of a male or female) To engage in premarital or extramarital flings.
   • 1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, “Learning to Forget”, in Little Women: […], part second, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC, page 264:

     Let the boys be boys,—the longer the better,—and let the young men sow their wild oats if they must,—but mothers, sisters, and friends may help to make the crop a small one, and keep many tares from spoiling the harvest, by believing,—and showing that they believe,—in the possibility of loyalty to the virtues which make men manliest in good women's eyes.

   • 1914, Jack London, “Samuel”, in The Strength of the Strong‎, New York: MacMillan:

     The young men go down to the sea and sow their wild oats in the wicked ports, returning periodically, between voyages, to live the old intensive morality, to court till ten o’clock, to sit under the minister each Sunday, and to listen at home to the same stern precepts that the elders preached to them from the time they were laddies.

   • 2022, Ling Ma, “Office Hours”, in Bliss Montage, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN:

     “A nun advising a young woman to leave the convent and explore the world, the subtext being to sow her wild oats—well, it was more outrageous than any graphic scenes,” he had said.

3. (by extension, of a male or female) To have numerous sexual partners.
4. (by extension, often of young adults or the recently divorced) To indulge in a period of irresponsible behavior.

Related terms

• feel one's oats
• get one's oats

Translations

to spread a male's genes

Swedish: så sin havre (1), så vildhavre Ukrainian: розно́сити своє́ сі́м'я (roznósyty svojé símʺja)

to spend a period of one's youth behaving irresponsibly

Danish: løbe hornene af sig French: jeter sa gourme (fr) German: sich die Hörner abstoßen (de) Italian: correre la cavallina Ukrainian: розгуля́тися в мо́лодості (rozhuljátysja v mólodosti)

Further reading

• “sow one’s (wild) oats”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “sow your wild oats”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• Michael Quinion (1996–2024) “Sow one's wild oats”, in World Wide Words.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “oat”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.