feel one's oats
Fig. to be very lively. Careful with that horse. He's feeling his oats today. Mary was feeling her oats and decided to go out dancing.
feel one's oats
1. Feel frisky or animated, as in School was out, and they were feeling their oats. This usage alludes to the behavior of a horse after having been fed. [Early 1800s]
2. Display self-importance, as in He was feeling his oats, bossing everyone around. [Mid-1800s]
feel (one's) oats
1. To be energetic and playful.
2. To act in a self-important manner.
feel one's oats, to
To act frisky or lively. This saying, with its analogy to a horse that is lively after being fed, is American in origin and dates from the early nineteenth century. It appeared in print in Amos Lawrence’s Extracts from Diary and Correspondence (1833): “We both ‘feel our oats’ and our youth.”