Chrysti the Wordsmith > Radio Scripts

If someone tells you you're wet behind the ears, it means you may have to grow up a bit, or perhaps are too callow and inexperienced for the situation at hand. One-word synonyms for this expression are naive, untrained, innocent, and unsophisticated.

Wet behind the ears is an American idiom of uncertain vintage. It alludes to the indentation behind the ear of any newborn creature -- the last spot on the body to dry after birth. By extension, someone wet behind the ears has figuratively just been born and lacks the maturity or sophistication or experience to navigate life's complexity.

Wet behind the ears is just one of the hundreds of idioms in American English. Other examples include such admonitions as go fly a kite and don't beat a dead horse or fanciful notions like hauling someone over the coals and wearing a birthday suit. Idioms like these are nonsensical when literally interpreted. You aren't literally whipping a lifeless equine when you beat a dead horse, instead you're belaboring a point for no good reason. Idioms are colorful allusions to other technologies, circumstances or activities.

Radio Script > Wet Behind the Ears