Meanings
- idiomaticSeasoned or experienced; mature, especially with respect to judgment.
"You're past twenty-one," he said, "an' dry behind the ears."
1914 October – 1916 July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 6, in The Mucker, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published 31 October 1921, →OCLC4 more examples
Why, you irreclaimable donkey, don’t you know the “notice” was an advertisement? When will you get dry behind the ears?
1850, Springfield Rep., (Whig.), Daily (Columbus) Ohio Statesman, 9 May, p. 3, col. 4When you fellers was his age, you wa'n't dry behind the ears yet. He never was no kid. He was born a full-grown man.
1910, Jack London, chapter 3, in Burning Daylight”When you bastards get dry behin' the ears, you'll maybe learn to let a ol' fella sleep."
1939, John Steinbeck, chapter 10, in The Grapes of WrathThat wearing of blinders by our intelligence agents was recently revealed by The Washington Post's columnist and editor Jim Hoagland, who is dry behind the ears, to say the least.
2001 October 22, William Safire, “Essay: Advance The Story”, in New York Times, retrieved 05 Oct 2010Antonyms: wet behind the ears
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveSeasoned or experienced; mature, especially with respect to judgment.
Cite this entry
dry behind the ears. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dry%20behind%20the%20ears
“dry behind the ears.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dry%20behind%20the%20ears. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dry behind the ears,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dry%20behind%20the%20ears.
Source: dry behind the ears on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.