wet behind the ears
Meaning
Adjective
- Inexperienced; just beginning; immature (especially in judgment).
Related
Opposite words
Origin
- c. 1850, Pennsylvania, calque from German feucht hinter den Ohren.
- From the drying of amniotic fluid on a baby after birth, specifically a new-born farm animal, which last dries behind the ears (partly because licked dry by mother everywhere else). German variants (still wet behind the ears, not yet dry behind the ears, green behind the ears) also borrowed.
Modern English dictionary
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