eavesdrop
UK/ˈiːvzˌdɹɒp//ˈivzˌdɹɑp/
eavesdrop verb: to hear (intentionally) a conversation one is not intended to hear; to listen in.
Verb
eavesdrop (third-person singular simple present eavesdrops, present participle eavesdropping, simple past and past participle eavesdropped)
- To hear (intentionally) a conversation one is not intended to hear; to listen in.
- I hope nobody was eavesdropping on our conversation last night, since it got so personal.
- You shouldn't eavesdrop, David. I told you: You'll only hear things you'll wish you hadn't.1999 February 3, Anthony Horowitz et al., “Strangler's Wood”, in Midsomer Murders
- To listen for another organism's calls, so as to exploit them.
- […] Eastern Red Bat will eavesdrop on the sonar calls of other red bats to locate potential insect prey.1993, David W. Nagorsen, Robert Mark Brigham, Royal British Columbia Museum, Bats of British Columbia, page 109
- Frog-biting midges also depend on eavesdropping for reproduction, and one would predict similarly strong selection to evolve auditory adaptations for hearing and localizing calls of their hosts.2014, Ken Yasukawa, Animal Behavior: How and Why Animals Do the Things They Do
Noun
eavesdrop (countable and uncountable, plural eavesdrops)
- The dripping of rain from the eaves of a house.
- The space around a house on which such water drips.
- A concealed aperture through which an occupant of a building can surreptitiously listen to people talking at an entrance to the building.
- The act of intentionally hearing a conversation not intended to be heard.
- Were you having a little eavesdrop on us last night?
eavesdrop meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
eavesdrop in Hindi
- to hear a conversation one is not intended to hear
- अनकना anaknā
eavesdrop in Tamil
- ஒட்டுக்கேள்
eavesdrop in Urdu
- چھپ کر سننا
eavesdrop in Bengali
- গোপনে শোনা
More languagesFewer languages
- eavesdrop in Malayalam
- മറ്റുള്ളവരുടെ സംഭാഷണം രഹസ്യമായി കേൾക്കുക, ചെവിപാർക്കുക, ഇറപാർക്കുക, കാതോർത്തുനിൽക്കുക
- eavesdrop in Kannada
- ಅಡಗಿ ಕೇಳು, ಕದ್ದುಕೇಳು, ಹೊಂಚಿಕೇಳು, ಕಳ್ಳಗಿವಿಯಾಗು
- eavesdrop in Arabic
- تَنَصَّتَ tanaṣṣata, تَسَمَّعَ tasammaʕa
- eavesdrop in Persian
- فالگوش ایستادن fâlguš istâdan, شنود šonud, استراق سمع کردن esterâq-e sam' kardan
- eavesdrop in Thai
- ดักฟัง dàk-fang
- eavesdrop in Vietnamese
- nghe lén, nghe trộm
Synonyms of eavesdrop
Forms of eavesdrop
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | eavesdrops |
| present participle | eavesdropping |
| past participle | eavesdropped |
| past | eavesdropped |
| Noun | |
| plural | eavesdrops |
Origin of eavesdrop
From eaves + drop; the "listening" sense derives from the notion of the listener standing in the area denoted by the physical sense.
Words formed from eavesdrop
Questions about eavesdrop
- What does eavesdrop mean?
- Eavesdrop means to hear (intentionally) a conversation one is not intended to hear; to listen in.
- What is eavesdrop in Hindi?
- Eavesdrop in Hindi is अनकना (anaknā). See Eavesdrop meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is eavesdrop?
- Eavesdrop can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce eavesdrop?
- Eavesdrop is pronounced /ˈiːvzˌdɹɒp/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of eavesdrop?
- The past tense of eavesdrop is eavesdropped.
Words near eavesdrop in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: eavesdrop (page history and authors); eavesdrop (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); eavesdrop (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); eavesdrop (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); eavesdrop (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); eavesdrop (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-eavesdrop.ogg, en-au-eavesdrop.ogg.
Cite this entry: “eavesdrop.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/eavesdrop. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.