wild oats

noun wild oat

1. plural, plural only Oats of non-cultivated species of Avena, a genus of grasses.
2. plural, plural only Chasmanthium latifolium, a grass, Indian woodoats
3. plural, plural only Species of Uvularia, the bellworts.
4. plural, plural only Species of Aegilops, goatgrass.
5. dated, euphemistic, plural, plural only, slang Sexual intercourse outside of marriage. Youths would better look at the specimens of disease taken by the surgeon from innocent wives, and see how they tally with the “wild oats” of some husband’s youth before they begin sowing their own. ¶ There are thousands of syphilitics and tens of thousands of gonorrheics in every large city in the
6. archaic, plural, plural only A rake.