give someone an earful
give someone an earful verb: to scold someone loudly.
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)
- 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.
Forms of give someone an earful
| third-person singular present | gives someone an earful |
|---|---|
| present participle | giving someone an earful |
| past | gave someone an earful |
| past participle | given someone an earful |
Questions about give someone an earful
- What does give someone an earful mean?
- Give someone an earful means to scold someone loudly.
- What part of speech is give someone an earful?
- Give someone an earful is a verb.
- What is the past tense of give someone an earful?
- The past tense of give someone an earful is gave someone an earful.
Words near give someone an earful in the dictionary
- give someone a lift
- give someone a piece of one's mind
- give someone a ring
- give someone a shout
- give someone a speaking to
- give someone an earful
- give someone an inch and he'll take a yard
- give someone an inch and someone will take a mile
- give someone ass cancer
- give someone beans
- give someone butt cancer
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-give someone an earful.ogg.
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