ear

plural ears · alternative ere · alternative archaic eare

1. countableThe organ of hearing, consisting of the pinna or auricle, auditory canal, eardrum, malleus, incus, stapes and cochlea.
2. countableThe 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 four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

3. countableslangA 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

   1 more example

   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

   2 more examples

   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: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

   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 get beaten—nobody has an ear for that now.

   1990 August 19, Uwe Stelbrink, quotee, “Fear and uncertainty breed xenophobia in E. Germany”, in Democrat and Chronicle, volume 158, Rochester, N.Y., page 5A

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.

   1 more example

   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 himself again.

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 291

7. architectureAn acroterium.
8. architectureA crossette.
9. journalismA 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, Leads, and Other Media Lingo, page 26

10. bakingA 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. businessThe outer panels or flaps (protrusions) of a diaper upon which the fasteners are located, which are fastened around the wearer's waist.
12. graph theoryA path whose endpoints may coincide but in which otherwise there are no repetitions of vertices or edges.

present singular third person ears · participle present earing · participle past eared · past eared · alternative archaic eare

1. humoroustransitiveTo 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), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

2. transitiveTo 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

   1 more example

   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 Work

plural ears

1. countableThe fruiting body of a grain plant.

   He is in the fields, harvesting ears of corn.

   Synonyms: head, spike

present singular third person ears · participle present earing · participle past eared · past eared

1. intransitiveTo put forth ears in growing; to form ears, as grain does.

   This corn ears well.

present singular third person ears · participle present earing · participle past eared · past eared

1. archaicTo 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 Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

   1 more example

   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), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 21:4

plural EARs

1. abbreviationinitialismcomputingInitialism of Enterprise Application Archive, a file format used to package Java applications.
2. abbreviationinitialismnutritionInitialism of estimated average requirements.