wet behind the ears
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Inexperienced.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
THE 1987 heavyweight fight betwen Joe Bugner and Frank Bruno at Spurs was my first big promotion and to say I was wet behind the ears is an insult to water.
It's bad enough that Timothy's mooning over her like a schoolboy, wet behind the ears.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Euphemism (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Equivalents & related
Common questions
What does “wet behind the ears” mean?
Inexperienced.
Is “wet behind the ears” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.
What is the closest equivalent?
“chân ướt chân ráo” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.