give ear

English

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Verb

give ear (third-person singular simple present gives ear, present participle giving ear, simple past gave ear, past participle given ear)

1. (idiomatic, archaic, intransitive) To listen: to devote one's attention to an auditory event.

   Synonym: lend an ear

   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     Give ear to his motions: Master Slender, I will description the matter to you, if you be capacity of it.

   • 1882, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, A Death-Parting, lines 5–6:

     Leaves and rain and the days of the year,
     (Water-willow and wellaway,)
     All these fall, and my soul gives ear