earwork

noun

earwork

noun

Etymology From ear + work.

1

Humorous The practice of listening.

  • Until the millennium, the buyer's best course of action is to do a little earwork: most boat owners who are happy with their dealer-skipper relationship will talk your ear off about it.1971, MotorBoating, volume 127, number 1, page 153:
  • […] he is simply a man who, not understanding very well the nature of the propositions offered over the telephone due to faulty earwork, constantly finds himself involved in the destruction of these monsters in their hellish lairs […]1944, Ernest Hemingway, Second Battle of Britain:

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