Word.ws English Dictionary

feel one's oats

feel one's oats verb: to feel energetic or frisky; to behave in a vigorous or bold manner; to feel empowered and important.

Verb

feel one's oats (third-person singular simple present feels one's oats, present participle feeling one's oats, simple past and past participle 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
    • 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

Forms of feel one's oats

third-person singular presentfeels one's oats
present participlefeeling one's oats
past participlefelt one's oats
pastfelt one's oats

Origin of feel one's oats

Originally American English, an allusion to the behavior of a horse that has been well fed on oats.

Questions about feel one's oats

What does feel one's oats mean?
Feel one's oats means to feel energetic or frisky; to behave in a vigorous or bold manner; to feel empowered and important.
What part of speech is feel one's oats?
Feel one's oats is a verb.
What is the past tense of feel one's oats?
The past tense of feel one's oats is felt one's oats.

Words near feel one's oats in the dictionary

  1. feel like death
  2. feel like oneself
  3. feel nine feet tall
  4. feel no pain
  5. feel one's legs
  6. feel one's oats
  7. feel one's way
  8. feel oneself
  9. feel out
  10. feel someone's collar
  11. feel someone's pain

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: feel one's oats (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-feel one's oats.ogg.

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