Young, not experienced, immature

Etymology:

  • The new born baby is wet allover with fluid. The body of the baby quickly starts to dry but the indentation behind the ears stay wet for a long period of time. The expression originated from the American armed forces in the 20th century when they used this phrase to refer to newly admitted soldiers. The phrase is also used for young animals washed the mother. Farmers have known this fact about the baby for many years.
17 Views

The job required lot of responsibility and maturity on someone who was wet behind the ears.

Submitted on February 25, 2019

Additional definitions for 'Wet Behind the Ears':

wet behind the earsInexperienced; not seasoned; new; just beginning.
See them all »

Translation

Find a translation for the Wet Behind the Ears phrase in other languages:

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Nearby phrases

Some more phrases from our dictionary similar to Wet Behind the Ears

How to pronounce this phrase?

Discuss this Wet Behind the Ears phrase with the community:

0 Comments

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this Wet Behind the Ears definition to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "Wet Behind the Ears." Phrases.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.phrases.com/phrase/wet-behind-the-ears_45127>.

    We need you!

    Help us build the largest human-edited phrases collection on the web!

    Quiz

    Are you a phrases master?

    »
    _____ don't lose that number.
    A Robby
    B Ricky
    C Billy
    D Bobby

    Browse Phrases.com