feel oats
Related to feel oats: feel one's oats
feel (one's) oats
1. To be very active and energetic. The dog must be feeling his oats, considering how he's running around the yard today.
2. To be aware of one's own power or importance. If you sassed the boss like that, you must be feeling your oats!
See also: feel, oat
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
feel one's oats
Fig. to be very lively. Careful with that horse. He's feeling his oats today. Mary was feeling her oats and decided to go out dancing.
See also: feel, oat
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
feel (one's) oats
1. To be energetic and playful.
2. To act in a self-important manner.
See also: feel, oat
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
feel one's oats, to
To act frisky or lively. This saying, with its analogy to a horse that is lively after being fed, is American in origin and dates from the early nineteenth century. It appeared in print in Amos Lawrence’s Extracts from Diary and Correspondence (1833): “We both ‘feel our oats’ and our youth.”
See also: feel
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- feel (one's) oats
- feel one's oats
- feel your oats
- oat
- feel one's oats, to
- (one's) day in court
- (from) top to toe
- (one's) old man
- (one's) old lady
- (one's) bark is worse than (one's) bite