not born yesterday

Idioms  

1. More experienced and less naive than one appears to be, as in Don't think you can fool me; I wasn't born yesterday. This term gained currency from the title of Garson Kanin's popular Broadway play, Born Yesterday, which was made into an even more popular film. In both, Judy Holliday played a stereotypical dumb blonde who shows more common sense than her sophisticated acquaintances. [Early 1800s]

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Example Sentences

"You were not born yesterday, you understood exactly what you were doing," he said.

From BBC • Mar. 12, 2024

Because he was not born yesterday, Engoron is unlikely to believe that being female is an all-purpose preventative from buying into gender stereotypes, however.

From Salon • Nov. 10, 2023

But the voting public was not born yesterday and is increasingly sick of being spun.

From Washington Post • Sep. 22, 2016

But Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as she is so often reminded, was not born yesterday.

From Slate • Jul. 4, 2014

"I was not born yesterday, my lord, I assure you," said the doctor in his jocular way.

From Blind Love by Collins, Wilkie