sow one's wild oats

Meaning: (figuratively,of a male)To spread one'sgenesaround byimpregnatingmanyfemales.; (by extension,of a male or female)To engage inpremaritalorextramaritalflings.1869,Louisa M[ay] Alcott, “Learning to Forget”, inLittle Women:[…], part second, Boston, Mass.:Roberts Brothers,→OCLC,page264:Let the boys be boys,—the longer the better,—and let the young mensow their wild oatsif 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”, inThe Strength of the Strong‎[1], New York: MacMillan:The young men go down to the sea andsow their wild oatsin 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”, inBliss 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 tosow her wild oats—well, it was more outrageous than any graphic scenes,” he had said.; (by extension,of a male or female)To have numerous sexual partners.; (by extension,often of young adults or the recentlydivorced)Toindulgein a period ofirresponsiblebehavior.

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