dry behind the ears

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dry behind the ears

1. (idiomatic) Seasoned or experienced; mature, especially with respect to judgment.
   • 1850, Springfield Rep., (Whig.), Daily (Columbus) Ohio Statesman, 9 May, p. 3, col. 4:

     Why, you irreclaimable donkey, don’t you know the “notice” was an advertisement? When will you get dry behind the ears?

   • 1910, Jack London, chapter 3, in Burning Daylight:

     When 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.

   • 1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 6, in The Mucker‎, All-Story Cavalier Weekly:

     "You're past twenty-one," he said, "an' dry behind the ears."

   • 1939, John Steinbeck, chapter 10, in The Grapes of Wrath:

     ”When you bastards get dry behin' the ears, you'll maybe learn to let a ol' fella sleep."

   • 2001 October 22, William Safire, “Essay: Advance The Story”, in New York Times, retrieved 5 October 2010:

     That 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.

• Mostly in the negative: "not dry behind the ears yet".

• wet behind the ears