Definition of SALAD DAYS

When is Someone in Their salad days?

A good salad is fresh, crisp, and usually green. Those attributes are often associated (in both vegetables and people) with vitality and immaturity. The first English writer known to use salad days to associate the fresh greenness of salad with the vigor and recklessness of youth was William Shakespeare. In Antony and Cleopatra, Cleopatra praises Marc Antony's valor and demands that her serving woman do the same. When the servant instead praises her former consort, Caesar, Cleopatra threatens her - until the woman notes that she is only echoing Cleopatra's own effusive past praise of Caesar. Cleopatra's reply marks the first English use of salad days:

"My salad days,
When I was green in judgment, cold in blood,
To say as I said then."

Examples of salad days in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The numbers provided further evidence that Netflix's salad days may be over, particularly in the U.S., where most households that want its 12-year-old streaming service already have it. — cleveland, "Netflix heads into showdown with slowing subscriber growth," 17 Oct. 2019 The numbers provided further evidence that Netflix’s salad days may be over, particularly in the U.S., where most households that want its 12-year-old streaming service already have it. — Washington Post, "Netflix’s US subscriber growth slowing as competition looms," 16 Oct. 2019 Now, roughly 70 percent of the properties have rooms that offer a modern take on the hotel’s midcentury salad days, complete with interiors painted in orange and turquoise. — BostonGlobe.com, "Howard Johnson looks back to restyle its hotels for the future - The Boston Globe," 3 Oct. 2019 The longer the offense stays stuck in idle, the further away the salad days of Jan. 1 bowl games will seem. — Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press, "Mark Dantonio blamed refs for Michigan State football's loss. He should blame himself," 15 Sep. 2019 MoviePass, for those who don’t remember the salad days of 2017 and 2018, was the debit card that got you into almost unlimited first-run movies at basically any theater for $10 a month. — oregonlive, "MoviePass calls it quits: The once-popular money-saving service ends Saturday," 13 Sep. 2019 So who could blame Hall and Oates for emphasizing those salad days during their current U.S. tour? — Rob Hubbard, Twin Cities, "It was hits — and misses — for Hall and Oates at Minnesota State Fair Grandstand," 28 Aug. 2019 These were the salad days of congressional supremacy, and the results are extremely disappointing. — Jay Cost, National Review, "Congress Should Fix Itself before Reclaiming Its Power," 14 June 2019 Visits to the ocean were a big deal for folks from Pennsylvania steel towns such as Grandma D. Daytona Beach then was in its beachy salad days. — Joy Wallace Dickinson, OrlandoSentinel.com, "Magic carpets of steel brought family together," 13 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'salad days.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

14 Nov 2019

Cite this Entry

“Salad days.” The Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/salad%20days. Accessed 7 December 2019.