ear

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

Noun

  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...
  3. 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 ear - 1850, [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:...
    • 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...
  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...

    Coordinate Terms: boss eye

  7. An acroterium.
  8. A crossette.
  9. 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,...
  10. 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. The outer panels or flaps (protrusions) of a diaper upon which the fasteners are located, which are fastened around the wearer's waist.
  12. A path whose endpoints may coincide but in which otherwise there are no repetitions of vertices or edges.

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew- Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₂ṓws Proto-Germanic *ausô Proto-West Germanic *auʀā Old English ēare Middle English ere English ear From Middle English ere, eare, from Old English ēare (“ear”), from Proto-West Germanic *auʀā, from the voiced Verner alternant of Proto-Germanic *ausô (“ear”) (compare Scots ere, er, eir, West Frisian ear, Dutch oor, German Ohr, Swedish öra, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål øre, Norwegian Nynorsk øyra), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ṓws (compare Old Irish áu, Latin auris, Lithuanian ausi̇̀s, Russian у́хо (úxo), Albanian vesh, Ancient Greek οὖς (oûs), and Old Armenian ունկն (unkn).

Forms

ears ere

Synonyms

ear earball King Lear listener lug shell-like

Hypernyms

body part organ

Hyponyms

cauliflower ear jug ears

Derived

ass'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

Noun Entry 2

  1. The fruiting body of a grain plant.
    • He is in the fields, harvesting ears of corn.

    Synonyms: head spike

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₂éḱos Proto-Germanic *ahaz Proto-West Germanic *ahaʀ Old English ēar Middle English er English ear 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.

Forms

ears

Synonyms

ear earball King Lear listener lug shell-like

Hypernyms

body part organ

Hyponyms

cauliflower ear jug ears

Derived

corn earworm earshoot

Verb humorous, transitive

  1. 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),...
  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...

Forms

ears earing eared

Related

aural

Verb Entry 4

  1. To put forth ears in growing; to form ears, as grain does.
    • This corn ears well.

Forms

ears earing eared

Verb archaic

  1. 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...
    • 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 valley - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version),...

Origin

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

Forms

ears earing eared

Derived

earable