feel one's oats

present singular third person feels one's oats · participle present feeling one's oats · participle past felt one's oats · past felt one's oats

1. To feel energetic or frisky; to behave in a vigorous or bold manner; to feel empowered and important.

   In fact, precisely as a rash, restive horse is said to feel his oats, so Turkey felt his coat.

   1853 November–December, Herman Melville, “Bartleby”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC

   5 more examples

   Next to the officer is a shabby-looking boy, whose seat is by the right jamb of the jail door. Of all boys just old enough to feel their oats, this boy is the most commonplace.

   1865, George Alfred Townsend, The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth

   The old man feeling his oats, as he leaned with his back against the bar, said to us with a noticeable degree of pride, "Lads, I'm proud of every one of you. Men who will fight to protect my interests has my purse at their command."

   1906, Andy Adams [pseudonym], “The Double Trail”, in Cattle Brands

   Sometimes—and who could blame the surveyor?—when the pony was “feeling his oats,” he might step a little higher and farther, and in that case the beneficiary of the scrip might get a thousand or two more acres in his survey than the scrip called for.

   1910, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Georgia's Ruling”, in Whirligigs

   "Them hosses are feeling their oats," said McGuire. "Can't tell what they'd be up to the minute I turned my back on 'em. Might jump that old fence and be off, for all I know."

   1922, Max Brand [pseudonym; Frederick Schiller Faust], Alcatraz

   “You’re feeling your oats,” said Gin. “It makes you expect too much of the world, feeling your oats. You can’t help thinking there must be something to do about it. There isn’t; because whatever you do about it, it’s not settled.”

   1931, Emily Hahn, Beginners Luck