salad days
Definition of salad days
: time of youthful inexperience or indiscretion my salad days when I was green in judgment — William Shakespeare; also : an early flourishing period : heyday
From the M-W Editors
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Examples of salad days in a Sentence
he worked for NASA in its salad days
Did You Know?
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."
1606
First Known Use of salad days
1606
SALAD DAYS Defined for English Language Learners
salad days
Definition of salad days for English Language Learners
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: the period of life when someone is young and does not have much experience
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: an early period of success
Learn More about salad days
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for salad days
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