oats, n.² — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

oats n.²

[SE phr. feel one’s oats, sow one’s wild oats]

(also grains) sexual satisfaction.

[1664		R. Howard The Committee V i: Put forth some good words, as they use to Shake Oats when they go to catch a skittish Jade].
[1700		‘Song’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy II 276: Must I beat the Bush while you catch the Game; / Sow your wild oates, / And mind not her wild notes].
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 2 July n.p.: the whip wants to know What that blood means that deals in horse-feed by dodging in and out of Suse Shannon’s area, and if he goes to get his grains?
1920		A. Baer ‘Bugs’ Baer 25 Nov. [synd. col.] Mrs Tweedle-Fatt is a pacer [...] She likes her oats.
1923		J. Manchon Le Slang.
1933		J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 230: You watch your oats or you’ll be gettin’ in the same kind of a pickle.
1945		R.S. Close Love me Sailor 52: He can save his damned oats up until we get into port—like any sailor.
1964		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 135: You been foolin’ with your oats, you been messin’ with your hay, you say, ‘If you take me back, baby, I’ll do it the other way.’.
1973		Sun. Times Mag. 30 Sept. 38: Look at all them black women selling their f--- oats. Selling themselves.
1982		P. Bailey An Eng. Madam 99: Typical man, I thought – all smarm when he wants his oats.

get one’s oats (v.)

to gain sexual release.

1939		P.A. Meade Born to Trouble 92: Barker had said to me that any soldier who had never had his ‘oats’ was no bloody good.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 50: Oats from (a woman), get one’s, to coit with a woman.
1965		W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 188: You’re doin’ O.K., Cookie, you’re gonna get your oats tonight for sure, I thought to myself.
1970		B. Naughton Alfie Darling 196: Once I know I’m going to get my oats for certain I like to exert this final bit of self-discipline.
1982		P. Bailey Eng. Madam 46: He was getting his oats, mind you, even though I was eight months gone.
1999		C. Dexter Remorseful Day (2000) 296: Well ... Chap’s got to get his oats occasionally.

know one's oats (v.)

(US) to display sophistication, usu. sexual.

1926		Judge (NY) 91 July-Dec. 31: Knows His Oats - Has been around (usually one who pets well).
1936		(con. 1895) T. O’Reilly Tiger of the Legion 44: He [i.e. a lion] had grown old in the show-business, and he knew his oats down to the very last ear .

off one’s oats

feeling unwell, esp. if this diminishes one’s appetite.

1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 106: OFF HIS OATS: slang sick, indisposed, unable to eat well.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 26 Nov. 1/1: A Barrack-street agent is off his oats since his bar-girl got spliced [and] the charms of the counter lunch no longer attact the opulent oaf.
1917		E. O’Neill Long Voyage Home (1923) 5: I’m sick an’ orf me oats.
1929		(con. c.1900) J.B. Booth London Town 291: Lakey observed one night with sadness that Dunn was ‘off his oats’.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 80: You must refuse your oats at dinner tonight.