ear S2 W2 / ɪə $ ɪr / 名词

1 part of your body [可数名词] one of the organs on either side of your head that you hear with :

She tucked her hair behind her ears.

long-eared/short-eared etc

a long-eared rabbit

2 grain [可数名词] the top part of a plant such as wheat that produces grain

ear of

an ear of corn

3 smile/grin etc from ear to ear to show that you are very happy or pleased by smiling a lot :

She came out of his office, beaming from ear to ear.

4 reach somebody’s ears if something reaches someone’s ears, they hear about it or find out about it :

The news eventually reached the ears of the king.

5 to somebody’s ears used when saying how something sounds to someone :

It sounds odd to the ears of an ordinary English speaker.

6 [单数形式] the ability to learn music, copy sounds etc

ear for

She has no ear for languages at all.

a good ear for dialogue

7 a sympathetic ear used to say that someone listens sympathetically to what someone is saying :

He’s always prepared to lend a sympathetic ear .

8 close/shut your ears to something to refuse to listen to bad or unpleasant news :

You can’t just close your ears to their warnings. → turn a deaf ear at deaf ( 4 ) , → fall on deaf ears at deaf ( 5 )

9 be all ears informal to be very keen to hear what someone is going to tell you :

As soon as I mentioned money, Karen was all ears.

10 be out on your ear informal to be forced to leave a job, organization etc, especially because you have done something wrong :

You’d better start working harder, or you’ll be out on your ear.

11 be up to your ears in work/debt/problems etc to have a lot of work etc

12 have something coming out (of) your ears informal to have too much of something :

We’ve got pumpkins coming out our ears this time of year.

13 keep your/an ear to the ground to make sure that you always know what is happening in a situation

14 keep your ears open to always be listening in order to find out what is happening or to hear some useful information :

I hope you’ll all keep your eyes and ears open for anything unusual.

15 go in (at) one ear and out (at) the other informal if information goes in one ear and out the other, you forget it as soon as you have heard it :

I don’t know why I tell her anything. It just goes in one ear and out the other.

16 give somebody a thick ear British English informal to hit someone on the ear :

Behave yourself or I’ll give you a thick ear!

17 have sb’s ear to be trusted by someone so that they will listen to your advice, opinions etc :

He claimed to have the ear of several top ministers.

18 play something by ear to play music that you have heard without having to read written music → play it by ear at play 1 ( 11 )

19 sb’s ears are burning used to say that someone thinks that people are talking about them

20 sb’s ears are flapping British English spoken used to say that someone is trying to listen to your private conversation

→ dog-eared , → bend sb’s ear at bend 1 ( 7 ) , → send somebody off with a flea in their ear at flea ( 2 ) , → make a pig’s ear of at pig 1 ( 5 ) , → prick (up) your ears at prick 1 ( 5 ) , → wet behind the ears at wet 1 ( 7 )

COLLOCATIONS

形容词

big African elephants’ ears are bigger than those of Indian elephants.

floppy (= soft and hanging down loosely, rather than being stiff ) a rabbit with big floppy ears

pointy/pointed The dog has short pointy ears.

pierced (= with a hole in the skin where an earring can be put ) Her new boyfriend’s got long hair and pierced ears.

somebody’s left/right ear She is deaf in her right ear.

inner/middle ear (= the parts inside your ear, which you use to hear sounds ) I’ve got an infection in my middle ear.

动词

say/whisper something into somebody’s ear He whispered something into his wife’s ear.

have your ears pierced (= have a hole put into the skin, so that you can wear an earring ) I had my ears pierced when I was quite young.

somebody’s ears stick out (= they are noticeable because they do not lie flat against someone’s head ) If my hair is too short, you can see that my ears stick out.

somebody’s ears pop (= the pressure in them changes suddenly, for example when you go up or down quickly in a plane ) My ears finally popped when the plane landed.