Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Topic: HUMAN

Sense: 1,2
Origin: Old English eare
Sense: 3
Origin: Old English ear


ear S2 W2

part of your body

[countable]HBH one of the organs on either side of your head that you hear with:
She tucked her hair behind her ears.
She's had her ears pierced (=small holes made in her ears in order to wear earrings).
whisper/say (something) in somebody's ear
Lou whispered something in his ear.
long-eared/short-eared etc
a long-eared rabbit
inner/middle ear (=the parts inside your ear which you use to hear sounds)


[countable]HBH used to talk about hearing
It sounds odd to the ears of an ordinary English speaker.
I just wondered if the rumour had reached your ears (=if you had heard it).

➔ prick (up) your ears

at prick1 (5)


[countable]TAC the top part of a plant such as wheat that produces grain
ear of
an ear of corn

smile/grin etc from ear to ear

to show that you are very happy or pleased by smiling a lot:
She came out of his office, beaming from ear to ear.
5APM [singular] the ability to learn music, copy sounds etc
ear for
She has no ear for languages at all.
a good ear for dialogue

a sympathetic ear

used to say that someone listens sympathetically to what someone is saying:
He's always prepared to lend a sympathetic ear.

close/shut your ears to something

to refuse to listen to bad or unpleasant news:
You can't just close your ears to their warnings.

➔ turn a deaf ear

at deaf (4)

; ➔ fall on deaf ears

at deaf (5)

be all ears

informal to be very keen to hear what someone is going to tell you:
As soon as I mentioned money, Karen was all ears.

be out on your ear

informal to be forced to leave a job, organization etc, especially because you have done something wrong:
You'd better start working harder, or you'll be out on your ear.

have something coming out (of) your ears

informal to have too much of something:
We've got pumpkins coming out our ears this time of year.

keep your/an ear to the ground

to make sure that you always know what is happening in a situation

keep your ears open

to always be listening in order to find out what is happening or to hear some useful information:
I hope you'll all keep your eyes and ears open for anything unusual.

go in (at) one ear and out (at) the other

informal if information goes in one ear and out the other, you forget it as soon as you have heard it:
I don't know why I tell her anything. It just goes in one ear and out the other.

give somebody a thick ear

British English informal to hit someone on the ear:
Behave yourself or I'll give you a thick ear!

have somebody's ear

to be trusted by someone so that they will listen to your advice, opinions etc:
He claimed to have the ear of several top ministers.

play something by ear

to play music that you have heard without having to read written music

➔ play it by ear

at play1 (11)

somebody's ears are burning

used to say that someone thinks that people are talking about them

somebody's ears are flapping

British English spoken used to say that someone is trying to listen to your private conversation

➔ bend somebody's ear

at bend1 (7)

➔ send somebody off with a flea in their ear

at flea (2)

➔ make a pig's ear of

at pig1 (5)

➔ wet behind the ears

at wet1 (7)
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