GIVE EAR

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does give ear mean? 

• GIVE EAR (verb)
  The verb GIVE EAR has 1 sense:

1. give heed (to)

  Familiarity information: GIVE EAR used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GIVE EAR (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Give heed (to)

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

advert; attend; give ear; hang; pay heed

Context example:

They attended to everything he said

Hypernyms (to "give ear" is one way to...):

listen (hear with intention)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "give ear"):

fixate (pay attention to exclusively and obsessively)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

 Context examples 

Nor was I deceived, for soon I heard the very distant and low tones of a human voice, which, as I continued to give ear, grew steadily louder and nearer.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“Mr. Utterson, sir, asking to see you,” he called; and even as he did so, once more violently signed to the lawyer to give ear.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

But, to be sure, Lucy would not give ear to such kind of talking; so she told him directly (with a great deal about sweet and love, you know, and all that—Oh, la! one can't repeat such kind of things you know)—she told him directly, she had not the least mind in the world to be off, for she could live with him upon a trifle, and how little so ever he might have, she should be very glad to have it all, you know, or something of the kind.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Half an hour from now, when I shall again and forever reindue that hated personality, I know how I shall sit shuddering and weeping in my chair, or continue, with the most strained and fearstruck ecstasy of listening, to pace up and down this room (my last earthly refuge) and give ear to every sound of menace.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)