be born yesterday

English

Etymology

born + yesterday

Verb

be born yesterday (past tense only)

1. (idiomatic, informal) To be new, naive, innocent, inexperienced, or easily deceived.

   I was not born yesterday, you know. I have done this before!

   • 2005, Howard Zinn and Donaldo Pereira Macedo, Howard Zinn on Democratic Education‎, page 69:

     If you don't know important things about history, then it's as if you were born yesterday.

   • 1998, Gwyn Hyman Rubio, Icy Sparks‎, page 155:

     "Compared to me, you were born yesterday."

Usage notes

• Mostly used in the negative, to indicate that one is not as naive as had been implied, but sometimes, as in examples above, in comparison or the subjunctive mood.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:naive

Translations

to be inexperienced

• Finnish: olla (fi) märkäkorva (fi)
• German: von gestern (de) sein (de)
• Portuguese: ser (pt) nascido ontem (pt) m

• Russian: вчера родился (ru) (včerá rodílsja) (Example: Я не вчера родился)
• Spanish: haber (es) nacido (es) ayer (es)
• Swedish: vara (sv) född igår (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Norwegian: født i går