Meaning of sow one's wild oats | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To spread one's genes around by impregnating many females.
   figuratively, idiomatic
2. To engage in premarital or extramarital flings.
   broadly, idiomatic
3. To have numerous sexual partners.
   broadly, idiomatic
4. To indulge in a period of irresponsible behavior.
   broadly, idiomatic, often

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“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.”

““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.”

CEFR level