close one's ears

present singular third person closes one's ears · participle present closing one's ears · participle past closed one's ears · past closed one's ears

1. Not to listen.

   He closed his ears to applauding voices of the multitude, when those voices were to him the melody of time.

   1910 May, Margaret Preston Lynnbrook, “Doctor Bestor's Atonement”, in The New England Magazine, volume 42, number 3, page 312

   3 more examples

   to state the case still more strongly, the nation has a right to such practical wisdom as can be elicited only by the free comparison and discussion of opposing and divergent theories and measures; and the legislators who represent a bare majority have no right to close their ears and minds to the most ample and forceful presentation of the views and arguments of the minority.

   1865, Thomas Hare, The Election of Representatives, Parliamentary and Municipal, page 65

   In her writing, Teresa figuratively associates her deafness with her entering the convent: God closed her ears to human voices, cloistering her hearing ('las claustras de mis orejas') and enclosing her in a community of suffering ('el convento de las dolençias').

   1997, Catherine Davies, Jane Whetnall, Hers Ancient and Modern: Women's Writing in Spain and Brazil, page 13

   Then I heard a beautiful melody from heaven that revived my wounded heart with its purity, but I closed my ears and said, 'Oh, my soul, the cry of the abyss is thy lot, do not be greedy for heavenly songs.'

   2009, Kahlil Gibran, Spirits Rebellious, page 13