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1683 D. A. Whole Art Converse 25 This is the ordinary defect of young and unexperienc'd Schollars, when they come first from the University, or as they say commonly, fresh off the Irons.

1786 Edinb. Mag. Nov. 357/1 Fire-new, new off the irons, and the Scottish expression bren-new, have all the same origin.

1808 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. at Irne New aff the irnes, a phrase used with respect to one who has recently finished his studies.

1824 W. Scott Redgauntlet I. xiii. 229 I said that you were a gey sharp birkie, just off the irons.

1881 Edinb. Med. Jrnl. (1882) 27 i. 203 They [sc. patients at a family-run practice] are apt to look more with suspicion than admiration on your being ‘new off the irons’.

1907 Accountant 12 Jan. 62/2 They as a Society were peculiarly fitted to take part in that work, because, if he might say so, they were fresh from the irons.

1917 J. L. Waugh Cute McCheyne 55 It struck me that..he had come—fresh off the erns, as it were—to me in either peace or war.