wild oats

English

Alternative forms

• wild oat

Noun

wild oats pl (plural only)

1. Oats of non-cultivated species of Avena, a genus of grasses.
2. Chasmanthium latifolium, a grass, Indian woodoats
3. Species of Uvularia, the bellworts.
4. Species of Aegilops, goatgrass.
5. (archaic) A rake.

Derived terms

• slender wild oats (Avena barbata)
• common wild oats (Avena fatua)
• winter wild oats (Avena sterilis)

Derived terms

• sow one's wild oats

Translations

non-cultivated oats

• Azerbaijani: yulafca
• Estonian: tuulekaer (Avena fatua)
• Finnish: villikaura (fi); hukkakaura (fi) (Avena fatua)
• Galician: cugula f, avea louca f
• Hungarian: vadzab (hu) (Avena fatua)
• Ottoman Turkish: یابان یولافی (yaban yulafı)
• Russian: овсю́г (ru) m (ovsjúg), овёс пусто́й m (ovjós pustój)
• Turkish: yaban yulafı (tr)

Chasmanthium latifolium

• Finnish: nuokkutähkä (fi)

Uvularia — see bellwort

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2024) “wild oats n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang