wet behind the ears
5
8.3
- idiom
- /wɛt bɪˈhaɪnd ði ɪrz/
- Informal
:
inexperto
- With our experienced leader gone, our team was back to being young and wet behind the ears.
- still wet behind the ears
- wet behind the ears rookie
- wet behind the ears young
When you look at your story, high society, you know, women of power and you being a young, wet behind the ears man, it's not that dissimilar.
- When you look at your story, high society, you know, women of power and you being a young, wet behind the ears man, it's not that dissimilar.
Examples
-
See, when I first arrived in America, I was a wet-behind-the-ears graduate who thought he was God's gift to science.
-
I was a little wet behind the ears back then.
-
Just a simple guy, still wet behind the ears.
-
My last assistant was only 23 and still wet behind the ears.
-
Coming in, I was a little wet behind the ears, but now I'm getting used to it.
Blog text (21) -
I was twenty-six years old but still wet behind the ears.
Fiction book (1991) -
I was a very wet behind the ears young firefighter on a small volunteer fire department.
Blog text (32) -
The year was 1958, and as a wet-behind-the-ears associate of an older local lawyer, he took whatever work he was given.
Academic text (1996) -
She's just a cub, a pup, still wet behind the ears.
Fiction book (1993) -
When she started her new job, she felt a bit wet behind the ears compared to her experienced colleagues.
Synonyms
∞
2.1
Having little experience in a job or activity
66
3.4
Not having much skill or practice
30
4.4
New and without much experience in a job or activity
1
7.5
A person who does not know much yet about a job or task
1
6.5
Not skilled at a task or subject
A person who lacks experience and maturity in new situations
Antonyms
How Inexperienced
5
8.4
- Informal
5
8.3
- Informal
30
4.4
66
3.4
99
5.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
wet + behind + the + ears
The idiomatic sense 'inexperienced' does not follow from the literal meanings of 'wet', 'behind' and 'ears' — the pictorial image is not transparently linked to lack of experience. This phrase is a fixed idiom with cultural/historical origins, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would unlikely infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
The idiom wet behind the ears may come from baby animals that are still wet behind the ears right after birth, a sign they are very new to the world. So, the phrase now means 'inexperienced'.