Word.ws English Dictionary

wet-behind-the-ears

wet-behind-the-ears is the alternative form of wet behind the ears.

Meaning of wet behind the ears

Adjective

wet behind the ears

  1. (idiomatic) Inexperienced; just beginning; immature (especially in judgment).
    • [They would put] their hands behind their ears and pat the top of their heads to taunt me with the fact that I was still wet behind the ears and soft on top of the head.1903 August 2, “The Boy Whose Parents Wanted Him to Be Useful”, in Chicago Tribune, retrieved 05 Oct 2010, page B2
    Synonyms:
    green behind the ears>>

Questions about wet-behind-the-ears

What is wet-behind-the-ears the alternative form of?
Wet-behind-the-ears is the alternative form of wet behind the ears.

Words near wet-behind-the-ears in the dictionary

  1. wet wipes
  2. wet work
  3. Wet'suwet'en
  4. wet-and-dry-bulb hygrometer
  5. wet-and-dry-bulb hygrometers
  6. wet-behind-the-ears
  7. wet-blanket
  8. wet-blanketed
  9. wet-blanketing
  10. wet-blanketry
  11. wet-blankets

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wet-behind-the-ears (page history and authors); wet behind the ears (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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Cite this entry: “wet-behind-the-ears.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wet-behind-the-ears. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.