hear of

present singular third person hears of · participle present hearing of · participle past heard of · past heard of

1. To become aware of (a subject, person) through second-hand knowledge, or not through personal experience.

   Who is Tamara Williams? I've never heard of her.

   2 more examples

   I first heard of the Electra complex when I was studying psychology.

   It came from the southeast, a distant hissing, a sandwhisper. Presently he saw the faraway outline of the creature’s track against the dawnlight and realized he had never before seen a maker this large, never heard of one this size. It appeared to be more than half a league long, and the rise of the sandwave at its cresting head was like the approach of a mountain. This is nothing I have seen by vision or in life, Paul cautioned himself.

   1965 October 1, Frank Herbert, “Book III: The Prophet”, in Dune, Philadelphia, Pa.: Chilton Book Company; [Toronto], Ont.: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 385

2. usually"will not"; "wouldn't"; "will not"; "wouldn't"To permit or tolerate.

   “The furniture – whatever could we possibly do about all this furniture? I refuse to sell it, Rachel. I won't hear of it.”

   1966, Margaret Laurence, A Jest of God

   1 more example

   All the universities are sending in long petitions to restrict their production. Otherwise, they say, mankind will become extinct through lack of fertility. But the R. U. R. shareholders, of course, won't hear of it. All the governments, on the other hand, are clamoring for an increase in production, to raise the standards of their armies. And all the manufacturers in the world are ordering Robots like mad.

   c. 1921 (date written), Karel Čapek, translated by Paul Selver, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots): A Fantastic Melodrama […], Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1923, →OCLC, Act 2