Word.ws English Dictionary

gave ear

gave ear is the simple past of give ear.

Meaning of give ear

Verb

give ear (third-person singular simple present gives ear, present participle giving ear, simple past gave ear, past participle given ear)

  1. (archaic, idiomatic, intransitive) To listen: to devote one's attention to an auditory event.
    • Give ear to his motions: Master Slender, I will description the matter to you, if you be capacity of it.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    Synonyms:
    lend an ear

Questions about gave ear

What is gave ear the simple past of?
Gave ear is the simple past of give ear.

Words near gave ear in the dictionary

  1. gave chase
  2. gave credit
  3. gave curry
  4. gave dap
  5. gave dome
  6. gave ear
  7. gave face
  8. gave forth
  9. gave gray hair to
  10. gave grey hair to
  11. gave ground

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gave ear (page history and authors); give ear (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.

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