Word.ws English Dictionary

gave someone an earful

gave someone an earful is the simple past of give someone an earful.

Meaning of give someone an earful

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To scold someone loudly.
    • I should never have tried to grind the computer system to a halt. Firstly I got sacked, and then my boss gave me a right earful.

Questions about gave someone an earful

What is gave someone an earful the simple past of?
Gave someone an earful is the simple past of give someone an earful.

Words near gave someone an earful in the dictionary

  1. gave someone a lift
  2. gave someone a piece of one's mind
  3. gave someone a ring
  4. gave someone a shout
  5. gave someone a speaking to
  6. gave someone an earful
  7. gave someone ass cancer
  8. gave someone beans
  9. gave someone butt cancer
  10. gave someone five
  11. gave someone goss

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gave someone an earful (page history and authors); give someone an earful (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:

Cite this entry: “gave someone an earful.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gave_someone_an_earful. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.