ear

noun, verb — 17 senses

ear

noun

UK /ˈɪə̯/ · CA, US /ˈɪɚ/

Etymology

From Middle English eare, eere, ere, eyr, ire, yere, ȝhere, from Old English ēare (“ear”), from Proto-West Germanic *auʀā, from the voiced Verner alternant of Proto-Germanic *ausô (“ear”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ṓws (“ear”), from *h₂ew- (“to perceive”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian uaar, uar, uur (“ear”), Saterland Frisian Oor (“ear”), West Frisian ear (“ear”), Alemannic German Oor (“ear”), Central Franconian Uhr (“ear”), Dutch oor (“ear”), German Ohr (“ear”), Low German Ohr, Oor, Or, our, Ur (“ear”), Luxembourgish Ouer (“ear”), Vilamovian ür (“ear”), Yiddish אויער (oyer, “ear”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål øre (“ear”), Elfdalian ära (“ear”), Faroese oyra (“ear”), Icelandic eyra (“ear”), Jamtish ǿre (“ear”), Norwegian Nynorsk øra, øre, øyra, øyre (“ear”), Swedish öra (“ear”), Gothic 𐌰𐌿𐍃𐍉 (ausō, “ear”); also Old Irish áu, ó (“ear”), Latin auris, ōris (“ear”), Greek αφτί (aftí), αυτί (aftí, “ear”), Albanian vesh (“ear; handle”), Latvian auss (“ear”), Lithuanian ausis (“ear”), Belarusian ву́ха (vúxa, “ear”), Bulgarian ухо́ (uhó, “ear”), Czech, Polish, Silesian, and Slovak ucho (“ear”), Kashubian ùchò (“ear”), Lower Sorbian and Upper Sorbian wucho (“ear”), Macedonian уво (uvo, “ear”), Polabian vaux’ü (“ear”), Russian у́хо (úxo, “ear”), Serbo-Croatian у̏во, у̏хо, ȕho, ȕvo (“ear”), Slovene uho (“ear”), Slovincian wùchô (“ear”), Ukrainian ву́хо (vúxo, “ear”), Armenian ունկ (unk, “ear”), Persian هوش (hōš / huš, “intellect; intelligence; understanding”), Sanskrit उषस् (uṣas, “outer passage of the ear”).

12 senses
  1. 1The organ of hearing, consisting of the pinna or…
  2. 2The external part of the organ of hearing, the auricle.
  3. 3A police informant.
  4. 4The sense of hearing; the perception of sounds; skill or…
  5. 5The privilege of being kindly heard; favour; attention.
  6. 6That which resembles in shape or position the ear of an…
  7. 7An acroterium.
  8. 8A crossette.
  9. 9A space to the left or right of a publication's…
  10. 10A curled ridge in the crust of a loaf of bread where the…
  11. 11The outer panels or flaps (protrusions) of a diaper upon…
  12. 12A path whose endpoints may coincide but in which…
1

The organ of hearing, consisting of the pinna or auricle, auditory canal, eardrum, malleus, incus, stapes and cochlea.

2

The external part of the organ of hearing, the auricle.

  • Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
3

Slang A police informant.

  • No I'm not kidding, and if you don't give it to me I'll let it out that you’re an ear.1976, Stirling Silliphant, Dean Riesner, Gail Morgan Hickman, The Enforcer:
4

The sense of hearing; the perception of sounds; skill or good taste in listening to music.

  • a good ear for music
  • songs[…]not all ungrateful to thine ear1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “(please specify |part=Prologue or Epilogue, or |canto=I to CXXIX)”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
5

The privilege of being kindly heard; favour; attention.

  • Dionysius[…]would give no ear to his suit.1625, Francis [Bacon], Apophthegmes New and Old. […], London: […] Hanna Barret, and Richard Whittaker, […], →OCLC:
  • Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
1 more example
  • They don’t know if they’re going to have a job in a week or a month. They don’t know if they can pay the rising prices. Instead of the paradise they expected July 1, their total existence is unsure. That some foreigners get beaten—nobody has an ear for that now.1990 August 19, Uwe Stelbrink, quotee, “Fear and uncertainty breed xenophobia in E. Germany”, in Democrat and Chronicle, volume 158, Rochester, N.Y., page 5A:
6

That which resembles in shape or position the ear of an animal; a prominence or projection on an object, usually for support or attachment; a lug; a handle; a foot-rest or step of a spade or a similar digging tool.

  • the ears of a tub, skillet, or dish; The ears of a boat are outside kneepieces near the bow.
  • When they got as far as the little valley north of Oppenhagen - where the land-slip took place - he thought he sat between the ears of a bucket; but shortly this vanished also, and it was only then he really came to himself again.1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 291:
7

Architecture An acroterium.

8

Architecture A crossette.

9

Journalism, Media A space to the left or right of a publication's front-page title, used for advertising, weather, etc.

  • In journalism, ears flank the title as boxes in the left and right top corners of a publication (generally a newspaper).2006, Richard Weiner, Charles M. Levine, The Skinny about Best Boys, Dollies, Green Rooms, Leads, and Other Media Lingo, page 26:
10

Baking, Cooking, Food, Lifestyle A curled ridge in the crust of a loaf of bread where the dough was slashed before going into the oven and expands during baking.

11

Business, Clothing, Fashion, Lifestyle, Manufacturing, Textiles The outer panels or flaps (protrusions) of a diaper upon which the fasteners are located, which are fastened around the wearer's waist.

12

Graph theory, Mathematics, Sciences A path whose endpoints may coincide but in which otherwise there are no repetitions of vertices or edges.

Synonyms
ear, earball, King Lear, listener, lug, shell-like
Derived terms
248 termsass's-ear abalone, bangle ear, bat ear, bear's ear, behind the ear, bend somebody's ear, bend someone's ear, between the ears, bionic ear, blow it out one's ear, blue ear disease, blue-ear disease, blue-ear pig disease, bunny ear cactus, burnt ear, button ear, by ear, cat's ear, cauliflower ear, closed-ear, close-ear, cloud ear, crop-ear, cuff on the ear, cute as a bug's ear, devil's ear, dog ear, dog-ear, dog's-ear, Dumbo ear, earache, ear-achingly, earage, earal, earball, earbanger, earbash, earbasher, ear beer, earbob, ear bob, earbone, ear bone, ear-bud, ear bud, earbud, ear canal, ear candle, ear candling, ear candy, earcap, ear chair, earclip, ear cockle, earcockle, earcon, ear coning, earcup, ear dagger, ear defender, eardrop, ear drop, eardropper, ear drops, eardrum, ear drum, eared, ear fatigue, ear finger, ear-finger, earflap, earflare, earful, eargasm, eargasmic, ear gauge, ear hair, earhole, earhorn, ear hustle, ear jacket, earlap, earless, earlet, ear level, earlid, earlike, ear lobe, earlobe, earlock, earloop, earmark, ear-minded, earmold, earmould, earmuff, earnut, earpad, earphone, earpick, earpiece, ear-piercing, ear-piercingly, ear player, ear-player, ear plucking, earplug, earpod, ear prick, earprint, ear range, ear-rape, ear rape, ear-reach, earreach, earring, ear rocks, ears are burning, earset, ear-shattering, ear shell, ear-shell, earshot, earshrift, earsies, earsore, ear speaker, ear-splitting, earsplitting, ear-splittingly, earspool, ear-spoon, ear spoon, earspoon, earstone, ear tag, ear-tag, ear-tagged, ear toilet, ear to the ground, ear training, ear trumpet, ear-trumpet, ear tuft, ear tunnel, earware, ear wax, ear-wax, earwax, earwear, earwitness, earwork, ear worm, ear-worm, earworm, ear-wormy, earworthy, elephant ear, elephant-ear tree, elephant's ear, external ear, flea in one's ear, get out of someone's ear, give ear, glue ear, go in at one ear and at out the other, go in one ear and out the other, golden ear, green ear disease, grin from ear to ear, hare's ear, hart's ear, have a word in someone's ear, have one's ears lowered, have one's ears on, have someone's ear, have the wolf by the ear, have Van Gogh's ear for music, hearing-ear dog, helicopter ear, hookeared, in-ear, in-ear monitor, inner ear, internal ear, in the ear, jelly ear, Jew's ear, Jew's-ear, Judas-ear, knife-ear, knife ear, lend an ear, lion's ear, listen with half an ear, little pitchers have big ears, longear, make a pig's ear of, make a silk purse of a sow's ear, Midas's ear, middle ear, mind's ear, monkey-ear tree, mouse-ear, mouse-ear hawkweed, mule's ear, musical ear syndrome, music to someone's ears, offensive to pious ears, open-ear, outer ear, out on one's ear, pig's ear, play by ear, pour honey in one's ear, pour honey into one's ear, put a bug in someone's ear, rabbit ear, rabbit-ear iris, rabbit ear mite, red ear syndrome, roasting ear, rose ear, round-ear, scalp-ear-nipple syndrome, sea-ear, sea ear, smile from ear to ear, surfer's ear, swimmer's ear, talk out of one's ear, talk someone's ear off, thick ear, tickle the ear, tin ear, tree ear, turn a deaf ear, up on one's ear, violetear, walls have ears, wheatear, white-ear, Wildermuth ear, Wildermuth's ear, wood-ear, wood ear, you can't make a silk purse of a sow's ear, English terms starting with
Hypernyms
body part, organ
Hyponyms
cauliflower ear, jug ears
Holonyms
countenance, face, head, body
Meronyms
auricle, auricula, pinna, outer ear, auditory canal, eardrum, malleus, incus, stapes, cochlea

ear

verb
Etymology

From Middle English eare, eere, ere, eyr, ire, yere, ȝhere, from Old English ēare (“ear”), from Proto-West Germanic *auʀā, from the voiced Verner alternant of Proto-Germanic *ausô (“ear”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ṓws (“ear”), from *h₂ew- (“to perceive”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian uaar, uar, uur (“ear”), Saterland Frisian Oor (“ear”), West Frisian ear (“ear”), Alemannic German Oor (“ear”), Central Franconian Uhr (“ear”), Dutch oor (“ear”), German Ohr (“ear”), Low German Ohr, Oor, Or, our, Ur (“ear”), Luxembourgish Ouer (“ear”), Vilamovian ür (“ear”), Yiddish אויער (oyer, “ear”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål øre (“ear”), Elfdalian ära (“ear”), Faroese oyra (“ear”), Icelandic eyra (“ear”), Jamtish ǿre (“ear”), Norwegian Nynorsk øra, øre, øyra, øyre (“ear”), Swedish öra (“ear”), Gothic 𐌰𐌿𐍃𐍉 (ausō, “ear”); also Old Irish áu, ó (“ear”), Latin auris, ōris (“ear”), Greek αφτί (aftí), αυτί (aftí, “ear”), Albanian vesh (“ear; handle”), Latvian auss (“ear”), Lithuanian ausis (“ear”), Belarusian ву́ха (vúxa, “ear”), Bulgarian ухо́ (uhó, “ear”), Czech, Polish, Silesian, and Slovak ucho (“ear”), Kashubian ùchò (“ear”), Lower Sorbian and Upper Sorbian wucho (“ear”), Macedonian уво (uvo, “ear”), Polabian vaux’ü (“ear”), Russian у́хо (úxo, “ear”), Serbo-Croatian у̏во, у̏хо, ȕho, ȕvo (“ear”), Slovene uho (“ear”), Slovincian wùchô (“ear”), Ukrainian ву́хо (vúxo, “ear”), Armenian ունկ (unk, “ear”), Persian هوش (hōš / huš, “intellect; intelligence; understanding”), Sanskrit उषस् (uṣas, “outer passage of the ear”).

1

Humorous To take in with the ears; to hear.

  • I eared her language.1613–1614 (date written), John Fletcher, William Shak[e]speare, The Two Noble Kinsmen: […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Waterson; […], published 1634, →OCLC, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
2

To hold by the ears.

  • Sometimes, the helper eared the horse down; and sometimes he used a blindfold.1964, John Hendrix, If I Can Do It Horseback: A Cow-Country Sketchbook, page 40:
  • The general technique was to rope the horse around the neck, and, while one or two men eared the horse down (held him by the ears), the rider saddled the animal and stepped above him.2013, Fay E. Ward, The Cowboy at Work:
Related terms
aural

ear

noun

Etymology From Middle English er, ere, from Old English ēar (Northumbrian dialect æhher), from Proto-West Germanic *ahaʀ, from Proto-Germanic *ahaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”). Cognate with Dutch aar, German Ähre, and West Frisian ier; also Latin acus (“needle; husk”), Tocharian B āk (“ear, awn”), and Old Church Slavonic ость (ostĭ, “wheat spike, sharp point”). More at edge.

1

The fruiting body of a grain plant.

  • He is in the fields, harvesting ears of corn.
Derived terms
corn earworm, earshoot

ear

verb

Etymology From Middle English er, ere, from Old English ēar (Northumbrian dialect æhher), from Proto-West Germanic *ahaʀ, from Proto-Germanic *ahaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”). Cognate with Dutch aar, German Ähre, and West Frisian ier; also Latin acus (“needle; husk”), Tocharian B āk (“ear, awn”), and Old Church Slavonic ость (ostĭ, “wheat spike, sharp point”). More at edge.

1

To put forth ears in growing; to form ears, as grain does.

  • This corn ears well.

ear

verb

Etymology From Middle English eren, from Old English erian, from Proto-West Germanic *arjan, from Proto-Germanic *arjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂erh₃- (“to plough”).

1

Archaic To plough.

  • That power I have, discharge; and let them go To ear the land that hath some hope to grow, For I have none.1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
  • And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer's neck there in the valley1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 21:4:
Derived terms
earable

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.