salad days
plural noun
William Shakespeare
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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
Betsy Andrews, Bon Appetit Magazine, 2 June 2025
This was informed by Smith’s salad days in the electric scooter sector’s C suite, running Unagi’s global logistics from 2017-2021.
—Alexandra Harrell, Sourcing Journal, 11 Apr. 2025
Gone are the salad days of Macklowe and Paul Allen.
—Daniel Cassady For Artnews, Robb Report, 26 Apr. 2025
Additionally, the attackers who are more confident about staying, like Embolo and Takumi Minamino, are approaching the end of their salad days.
—Brett Koremenos, The Athletic, 21 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for salad days
Cite this Entry
“Salad days.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/salad%20days. Accessed 2 Jul. 2025.
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